Astronomers Obtain Highly Detailed Image of the "Red Square"(Forwarded)

Media Relations
Caltech

Contact:
Richard Dekany, (626) 395-6798
Peter Tuthill, +61 2 9566 1826
James Lloyd, jpl @ astro.cornell.edu

April 12, 2007

Astronomers Obtain Highly Detailed Image of the "Red Square" By Using
Adaptive Optics of Palomar and Keck Telescopes

PASADENA, Calif. -- Astronomers today announced the arrival of a new
member in the pantheon of exotically beautiful celestial objects.
Christened the "Red Square" by Peter Tuthill, leader of the team, the
image was compiled with data from the 200-inch Hale Telescope at Palomar
Observatory, owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology,
and the Keck-2 Telescope atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii.

The findings will appear April 13 in the journal Science in an article
titled "A symmetric bipolar nebula around MWC 922," written by Tuthill
from the University of Sydney and coauthor James Lloyd of Cornell
University.

"Discoveries as beautiful -- and interesting -- as this one don't come
around very often in astronomy," said Tuthill, "and it took some of the
world's most advanced telescopes, together with a good dose of luck, to
find this jewel hidden among the myriad stars in the galaxy."

"The key to finding it was in the revolutionary new imaging technology of
adaptive optics, which acts like a myopia cure for a telescope," agreed
Lloyd. "Startlingly clear images capable of revealing objects like this
are now possible without the blurring."

The pair were studying a hot star called MWC 922 in the constellation
Serpens (the serpent mythologically associated with the origin of
medicine). The image shown here combines data taken in near-infrared light
(1.6 microns) and shows a region 30.8 arcseconds on a side around MWC 922.
As the outer periphery of the nebula is very faint compared to the core,
the image has been processed and sharpened to display the full panoply of
detail and structure.

"The thing that really takes your breath away is the astonishing degree of
symmetry within the intricate linear forms," said Tuthill. "If you fold
things across the principle diagonal axis, you get an almost perfect
reflection symmetry. This makes the Red Square nebula the most symmetrical
object of comparable complexity ever imaged."

The overall architecture of twin opposed conical cavities (commonly known
in astronomy as a "bipolar nebula") is seen to be adorned with a
remarkable sequence of sharply defined linear rungs or bars. This series
of rungs and conical surfaces lie nested, one within the next, down to the
heart of the system, where the hyperbolic bicone surfaces are crossed by a
dark lane running across the principle axis. One particularly fascinating
feature visible in the images is a series of faint radial spokes, like
teeth of a comb, pointing away from the center. "Structures such as this
are rarely seen in nebulae, and the high degree of regularity in this case
may point to the intriguing possibility that these bands are shadows cast
by periodic ripples or waves on the surface of an inner disk close to the
star at the heart of the system," said Lloyd. But the most compelling and
important implication for astronomy comes from the three-dimensional
structure implied by the Red Square images.

"If you can really get a mental grasp of the three-dimensional geometry
implied by the Red Square images," said Tuthill, "then it is fascinating
to take a second look at one of the most famous astronomical images of
them all: SN1987A." An image of the supernova as seen by the Hubble Space
Telescope is to the right, showing the beautiful and unexpected ring
system revealed around SN1987A -- the only naked-eye supernova since the
discovery of the telescope.

"We are not saying that the star MWC 922 at the heart of the Red Square is
about to explode as a supernova," said Lloyd, "but we're not ruling it out
either, and if it did it would certainly put on quite a show as it kindles
the outer reaches of its nebula."

Whatever the fate of the central star, the remarkable series of bars seen
in the Red Square make it the best astrophysical laboratory yet discovered
for studying the physics of generating the mysterious sharp polar-ring
systems like that around SN1987A.

According to Tuthill, "This is just the beginning -- a system as complex
and fascinating as this is bound to keep us guessing for years to come."

The image was made possible by the Palomar Adaptive Optics System, built
by Caltech Optical Observatories and Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and
captured by its companion infrared camera, built by Cornell University.

Note to Editors: This news release is being issued simultaneously by the
University of Sydney. The image is available at
http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~gekk...e/rsq_red.tiff (9.2MB)
and
http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~gekko/redsquare.html