Blue ring Nebula mystery solved by NASA.
                     BLUE RING NEBULA 
MYSTERY SOLVED BY NASA
INTRODUCTION
 The Blue Ring Nebula, which for more than a decade has 
perplexed astronomers, appears to be the youngest known 
example of two stars combining into one.
Source: www.wionews.com
 DISCOVERY
 Scientists with NASA's space-based Galaxy Evolution 
Explorer (GALEX) discovered an anomaly in the Milky Way 
galaxy in 2004 that was unlike any they had seen before: a 
massive, dim glob of gas with a star at its centre. 
Source: www.wionews.com
Nebula of the Blue Ring
 The blob appeared blue in the Galaxy Evolution Explorer 
(GALEX) image, but it simply does not emit light detectable 
to the human eye, and subsequent experiments showed a 
dense ring structure within it. So the team called it the 
Nebula of the Blue Ring. 
Source: www.wionews.com
RECENT RESEARCH
 Scientists studied it with numerous Earth and space-
based telescopes over the next 16 years, but the more 
they discovered, the more elusive it appeared to be.
 A recent research in the journal Nature released online 
on Nov. 18 could have solved the case. 
Source: www.wionews.com
 AT hCeLO aUuDt OhFo GrsA Sp IoNs SitP AtChEe nebula, a cloud of gas in space, 
presumably made up of debris by adding cutting-edge 
computational models to the variety of data obtained on 
this object.
Source: NASA
IMPOSSIBLE TO STUDY
 While merged star systems are thought to be fairly 
common, they are nearly impossible to study 
immediately after they form because they're obscured 
by debris the collision kicks up. 
 Once the debris has cleared at least hundreds of 
thousands of years later they're challenging to identify 
because they resemble non-merged stars. 
Source: Newsgram
MERGED STAR SYSTEM
 The Blue Ring Nebula appears to be the missing link: 
Astronomers are seeing the star system only a few 
thousand years after the merger, when evidence of the 
union is still plentiful. It appears to be the first known 
example of a merged star system at this stage.
Source: Newsgram
OPERATION
STAR SYSTEM
• Operated between 2003 and 2013 and managed by 
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern 
California, GALEX was designed to help study the 
history of star formation throughout most of the 
universe by taking a census of young star populations 
in other galaxies. 
• To do this, the mission observed both near-UV light 
and far-UV.
Source: NASA
SOLVING THE MYSTERY
• By the time Keri Hoadley began working with the 
GALEX science team in 2017, the group had kind of hit 
a wall with the Blue Ring Nebula.
• But Hoadley, an astrophysicist at Caltech, was 
fascinated by the object and its bizarre features, so 
she accepted the challenge of trying to solve the 
mystery.
Source: Astronomy Magazine
PREDICTION BY BUILDING MODELS
• As a theoretical astrophysicist, Metzger makes 
mathematical and computational models of cosmic 
phenomena, which can be used to predict how those 
phenomena will look and behave. 
Source: Astrobites
• The team concluded that the nebula was the product 
of a relatively fresh stellar merger that likely occurred 
bCeOtwNCeLeUnS IOa Nstar similar to our Sun and another star 
only about one-tenth that size . 
• Nearing the end of its life, the Sun-like star began to 
swell, creeping closer to its companion. 
• Eventually, the smaller star fell into a downward spiral 
toward its larger companion. 
• Along the way, the larger star tore the smaller star 
apart, wrapping itself in a ring of debris before 
swallowing the smaller star entirely.
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