Antimatter Hypothesis: Bipolar Jets

Bruce Balick (University of Washington), Vincent Icke (Leiden University, The Netherlands), Garrelt Mellema (Stockholm University), and NASAHere’s an example of a bipolar jet effect. This false color image of a bipolar nebula was taken using color filters on the Hubble Space Telescope.

red	neutral oxygen
green	once-ionized nitrogen
blue	twice-ionized oxygen

Two competing explanations have been proposed for the central constriction. Either the star has a companion orbiting perpendicular to the outflow of gas, which is responsible for pinching in the middle, or charged particles are caught in a powerful magnetic field like an aurora at either pole.

Here are some images of other planetary nebulae with similar bipolar outflow configurations.

NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) Acknowledgment: J. Biretta (STScI)



In this image of the ‘Garden-sprinkler’ nebula, the bipolar jets are precessing showing a slight ‘S’ shape. The color image is a composite of several filters.

blue	visual spectrum blue
green	oxygen
yellow-orange	hydrogen-alpha
orange-red	singly-ionized sulfur
red	visual spectrum red