Meet R Sculpture, a dying star throwing off its outer layers of gas, creating a beautiful spiral of radio emission. This amazing spectacle was captured with the help of the Atakam Big Grid of the Millimeter Range (ALMA) in the Chilean desert in 2012. Although this is rare, this type of space spiral is not unprecedented. In fact, there were several cosmic spirals, seen in recent years, excited, frightened, but, above all, reverent onlookers. Here are some of the most memorable.
Notes: This gallery does not include spiral galaxies, since there are so many of them and, frankly, they deserve their own gallery. So check out some of the “sexiest” spiral galaxies hubble received in this extraspecial slideshow. In addition, this gallery was originally published in October 2012, but was updated with more unusual space spirals.
Maternity Exoplanate Spiral
The image on the right shows an actual observation of a very young star called MWC 758, which was seen by the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory. Each of the dusty hands spirals away from the central star by 10 billion miles, or more than three times the diameter of the orbit of Neptune. But what drives this spiral? Using computer models (an example can be seen in the photo on the left), astronomers realized that this was probably the power of the huge exoplanet (about 10 times the mass of Jupiter), which kindles the protoplanetary disk of the star. But the planet itself is hidden from prying eyes.
Star bed
Although from a technical point of view, not being a spiral, this outstanding observation by ALMA revealed surprisingly clear, definite traces of the corroded presence of a child’s planet in orbit around TW Hydra, a million-year-old star just 175 light-years from Earth. It turned out that it has a protoplanet with an orbit similar to the Earth, located very close to the host star. Yes, it turns out that we are looking at a stellar system that resembles our Solar System 4, 5 billion years ago.
The Ghost of the Hubble Coil
In 2010, the Hubble Space Telescope captured a ghostly spinner of spirals surrounding a double star system called LL Pegasi.
This strange cosmic phenomenon is caused by one of the dying stars, which released a huge amount of gas and dust into space. The stars cross each other’s orbits every 800 years, and the material expands into space, just as water is sprayed from a spinning sprinkler in the garden.
Failed rocket spiral
Probably the most striking example in recent years is the mysterious expanding form that appeared over northern Norway on December 9, 2009. Reflecting early morning arctic light, this vast rotating cloud has expanded above the horizon, spraying a white spiral and a blue tail.
As soon as photographs and videos appeared in the media, conspiracy theories immediately arose. Was this a portal to another dimension? Is a black hole able to appear in our atmosphere? Is the responsibility on the Large Hadron Collider restarted? As it turned out, the helix was caused by a Russian rocket after an unsuccessful test launch. A rocket designed to carry nuclear warheads went out of control and spewed fuel into the upper layers of the atmosphere, creating this beautiful spiral pattern.
Death Star Spiral
What turmoil the WR 104 caused in 2008.
The Wolf-Rayye star first attracted attention when astronomers marveled at its spectacular spiral created by stellar winds colliding with the winds of its binary partner. But then we understood something. Wolf Rayet dies by force. And her violent death meant that a massive star could collapse and create one of the most powerful explosions in space: the gamma-ray burst (or GRB).
WR 104 is located just 8,000 light years from Earth. And the fact that we can see a full spiral means that we are looking at the barrel of this potentially dangerous gamma-ray burst.
Naturally, many people were concerned that we could become GRB toasts, and in the eyes of the media WR 104 was named “The Death Star”.
Fortunately, in 2009, Discovery News talked to expert Wolf-Raye Grant Hill, at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii, who has other ideas about the deadly potential of WR 104.
Spiral UFO
UFO reports are often vague and include shaky footage of fuzzy light in the sky.
However, when the Australian press announced the appearance of a strange spiral light over the Gold Coast in June 2010, many eyewitnesses shot high-quality video and photos.
At that time, this “UFO” remained true to its description; it was an unidentified flying object. But he did not stay so long. Observations coincided with the first flight of the Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket. The helix effect was caused by a small engineering malfunction, as a result of which the rocket rotated slowly, throwing exhaust gases into a partial helix.
Recurrent supernova
In the case of the RS Ophiuchi Double Star System, it is a small but dense white dwarf rotating around a large, swollen red giant that sheds huge amounts of matter. Thus, in space a strong stellar wind forms in the form of a spiral.
After the gas reaches a critical mass and temperature, a powerful explosion occurs, destroying the expanding spiral. Then the process is repeated approximately every 20 years.
Mysterious Martian Spiral?
Yes, these spirals are real, and no, they were not created by intelligent Martians.
Geologists know these types of formations on Earth, and they are caused by volcanic activity. Up to 30 meters wide, they were seen by NASA's Multifunctional Automatic Interplanetary Station (MRO) on Mars. And, like their earthly colleagues, geologists think that they were formed by ancient lava flows when the Red Planet was volcanically active. Similar formations were found in slow lava flows in Hawaii.
