K-band image of the peculiar star "Frosty Leo"

Frosty Leo is a magnitude 11 (post-AGB) star surrounded by an envelope of gas, dust, and large amounts of ice (hence the name). The associated nebula is of "butterfly" shape (bipolar morphology) and it is one of the best known examples of the brief transitional phase between two late evolutionary stages, asymptotic giant branch (AGB) and the subsequent planetary nebulae (PNe). For a three-solar-mass object like this one, this phase is believed to last only a few thousand years, the wink of an eye in the life of the star. Hence, objects like this one are very rare and Frosty Leo is one of the nearest and brightest among them. This image shows a 5 x 5 arcsec 2 K-band image of the peculiar star known as "Frosty Leo" obtained in 0.7 arcsec seeing. Although the object is comparatively bright (visual magnitude 11), it is a difficult AO target because of its extension of about 3 arcsec at visible wavelengths. The corrected image quality is about FWHM 0.1 arcsec.

Crediti:

ESO

Riguardo l'immagine

Identificazione:eso0313j
Tipo:Osservazione
Data di rilascio:13 Maggio 2003
Notizie relative:eso0313
Grandezza:1228 x 1017 px

Riguardo all'oggetto

Nome:Frosty Leo
Tipo:Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Planetary
Milky Way : Star
Distanza:10000 Anni luce
Categoria:Nebulae

Formati delle immagini

JPEG grande
133,5 KB

Sfondi

1024x768
162,3 KB
1280x1024
245,7 KB
1600x1200
309,6 KB
1920x1200
325,6 KB
2048x1536
423,9 KB

Colori e filtri

BandaLunghezza d'ondaTelescopio
Infrarosso
K
2.2 μmVery Large Telescope Interferometer
AMBER