In our galaxy there is a strange red box

It's not often you meet a planetary nebula that looks like a special effect from the forgotten science fiction films of 70-ies of the last century, but recently, astronomers have discovered in our galaxy strange red box.

Planetary nebula - a celestial object formed by a white dwarf and ionized gases with short-lived (on space standards) life - a few billion years. Currently, the Milky Way galaxy has about one and a half thousand of planetary nebulae, most of which is asymmetric spherical shape. However, in recent years, scientists are faced with a very unusual structure of planetary nebulae - in the example is a red rectangle.

According to representatives of NASA, in the center of the planetary nebula is no ordinary white dwarf, and a double star, ie the system of the two gravitationally bound stars that rotate along closed orbits - thus creating a dense layer of cosmic dust, forming a cone-shaped funnel, similar to a rectangle. As for color, there are only guesses: maybe red hue is formed of hydrocarbon molecules that are the building blocks of organic life.

via factroom.ru