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Using the 2.1 metre telescope of the Kitt Peak National Observatory, the Australian researcher Orsola De Marco and her Ph.D. student Dimitri Douchin (Macquarie University, Sidney) have confirmed the existence of the planetary nebula Kn 61, later photographed (above) by Travis Rector (University of Alaska, Anchorage) with the 8.1 metre Gemini North telescope.
Given that there are over 3000 known planetary nebulae in our galaxy, one more could seem like no big news. However, the finding is interesting for several reasons.
To start with, the discovery was made in the constellation of Cygnus, within the 105 square degrees, containing the 150,000 stars that the Kepler space telescope is presently monitoring in the search for new terrestrial sized planets.
Kn 61 was first identified as a possible planetary nebula by the Austrian amateur astronomer Matthias Kronberger, member of the Deep Sky Hunters (DSH), a network of amateurs searching the Digital Sky Survey (DSS) that have already identified a hundred or so probable planetary nebulae, some of which within the Kepler survey area, including Kn 61 (also called Kronberger 61).
Given that within this area only 5 planetary nebulae were known (2 also found by the DSH) one more is very significant. Kepler will now include the central star of this nebula in its observations, in the attempt to identify a possible gravitationally bound companion.
This is the crucial point: for 30 or so years it has been a mystery how planetary nebulae manage to have such complex and varied shapes. Though still unknown, it has been suggested that the diversity is due to the presence of massive planets in orbit around the dying star that created the nebulae. The only instrument that can test this hypothesis is Kepler, and now that its sample is enlarged, thanks to cooperation between professional and amateur astronomers, the chances of resolving this mystery are significantly increased.
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