Red Ice News

The Future is the Past

There’s No Up or Down in Space? Not So Fast
New to Red Ice? Start Here!

There’s No Up or Down in Space? Not So Fast

Source: science.time.com
Astronomers love to remind us that there’s no up or down in space. Look out into the depths of the universe and you’ll see galaxies floating edge-on, face-on and at every angle in between. Look at planets circling stars within the Milky Way, and their orbits might be oriented in any direction at all.


But for one class of celestial objects this seems to be untrue: planetary nebulae, the gorgeous clouds of gas puffed by stars in their last, gasping moments of life, seem to be mysteriously aligned with the plane of the Milky Way—something that Bryan Rees, an astronomer at the University of Manchester in England, and lead author of a paper in an upcoming issue of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society calls “quite unexpected.”

That’s putting it mildly. Most planetary nebulae are roughly spherical; they’re not visibly “aligned” with anything. One especially spectacular subclass, however, is more hourglass-shaped, and when Rees and his colleague Albert Zijlstra examined this particular kind, the long dimensions of the clouds pointed more or less in the same direction. “They’re not exactly aligned,” he says, “but they’re not random.”

The question is, why?

[...]

Read the full article at: science.time.com

Comments

We're Hiring

We are looking for a professional video editor, animator and graphics expert that can join us full time to work on our video productions.

Apply

Help Out

Sign up for a membership to support Red Ice. If you want to help advance our efforts further, please:

Donate

Tips

Send us a news tip or a
Guest suggestion

Send Tip

Related News

Make Space Great Again: Trump Orders Establishment of 'Space Force' as 6th Branch of Military
Make Space Great Again: Trump Orders Establishment of 'Space Force' as 6th Branch of Military
SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy Launches Tesla Roadster and Starman into Space
SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy Launches Tesla Roadster and Starman into Space

Archives Pick

Red Ice T-Shirts

Red Ice Radio

3Fourteen

Con Inc., J6 Political Prisoners & The Pedophile Problem
Kim Coulter - Con Inc., J6 Political Prisoners & The Pedophile Problem
Why European Culture, Art and Beauty Matter
Gifts - Why European Culture, Art and Beauty Matter

TV

Laughter: The New Weapon Of The Far-Right
Laughter: The New Weapon Of The Far-Right
London’s Fourth Plinth To Get Fat Black “Everywoman” Statue
London’s Fourth Plinth To Get Fat Black “Everywoman” Statue

RSSYoutubeGoogle+iTunesSoundCloudStitcherTuneIn

Design by Henrik Palmgren © Red Ice Privacy Policy