¿ Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2020 August 14 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. NGC 5189: An Unusually Complex Planetary Nebula Image Credit: [3]NASA, [4]ESA, [5]Hubble, [6]HLA; Reprocessing & Copyright: [7]Jesús M. Vargas Explanation: Why is this nebula so complex? When a star like our Sun is dying, it will cast off its outer layers, usually into a simple overall shape. Sometimes this shape is a [8]sphere, sometimes a [9]double lobe, and sometimes a [10]ring or a [11]helix. In the case of planetary nebula [12]NGC 5189, however, besides an overall "Z" shape (the featured image is flipped horizontally and so appears as an "S"), no such simple structure has emerged. To help find out why, the Earth-orbiting [13]Hubble Space Telescope has observed [14]NGC 5189 in great detail. [15]Previous findings indicated the existence of multiple epochs of material outflow, including a recent one that created a bright but distorted [16]torus running horizontally [17]across image center. Hubble results appear consistent with a hypothesis that the [18]dying star is part of a [19]binary star system with a [20]precessing symmetry axis. [21]NGC 5189 spans about three light years and lies about 3,000 light years away [22]toward the southern constellation of the Fly ([23]Musca). Tomorrow's picture: Moon meets Mars __________________________________________________________________ [24]< | [25]Archive | [26]Submissions | [27]Index | [28]Search | [29]Calendar | [30]RSS | [31]Education | [32]About APOD | [33]Discuss | [34]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [35]Robert Nemiroff ([36]MTU) & [37]Jerry Bonnell ([38]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [39]Specific rights apply. [40]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [41]ASD at [42]NASA / [43]GSFC & [44]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2008/NGC5189_HubbleVargas_4039.jpg 3. https://www.nasa.gov/ 4. https://www.esa.int/ 5. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/story/index.html 6. https://hla.stsci.edu/ 7. http://www.sky-astrophotography.com/ 8. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap121008.html 9. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160724.html 10. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap091115.html 11. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap030510.html 12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_5189 13. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/story/index.html 14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap121219.html 15. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012RMxAA..48..165S/abstract 16. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torus 17. http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2012/49/image/a/ 18. http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=18008 19. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecz9GEOE9Wg 20. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precession 21. http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2012/49/fastfacts/ 22. https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/videos/2012/49/726-Video.html 23. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musca 24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200813.html 25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 27. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 28. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 29. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 30. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 31. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 32. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 33. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=200814 34. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200815.html 35. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 36. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 37. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 38. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 39. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 40. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 41. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 42. https://www.nasa.gov/ 43. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 44. http://www.mtu.edu/