TT Cygni is a cool red [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] giant star [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] with a wind. This false-color picture of TT Cyg was made using a coordinated array of millimeter wavelength radio telescopes [
http://iram.fr/] and shows radio emission from carbon monoxide (CO) molecules in the surrounding gas. The central emission is from material blown off the red giant over a few hundred years while the thin ring, with a radius of about 1/4 light-year, actually represents a shell of gas expanding [
http://link.springe…8330001/23000l1/smal l.htm ] outward for 6,000 years. Carbon stars like [
http://www.regulusa…carbon/ ] TT Cyg are so named for their apparent abundance of carbon containing molecules. The carbon is likely the dredged-up ashes of nuclear helium burning [
http://astrosun.tn.…] in the stellar interior. Carbon stars lose a significant fraction of their total mass in the form of a stellar wind [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] which ultimately enriches the interstellar gas [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] - the source of material for future generations of stars [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. TT Cyg is about 1,500 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus [
http://www.astro.wi…constellations/Cygnu s.html ].
Explanation
TT Cygni is a cool red [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] giant star [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] with a wind. This false-color picture of TT Cyg was made using a coordinated array of millimeter wavelength radio telescopes [
http://iram.fr/] and shows radio emission from carbon monoxide (CO) molecules in the surrounding gas. The central emission is from material blown off the red giant over a few hundred years while the thin ring, with a radius of about 1/4 light-year, actually represents a shell of gas expanding [
http://link.springe…8330001/23000l1/smal l.htm ] outward for 6,000 years. Carbon stars like [
http://www.regulusa…carbon/ ] TT Cyg are so named for their apparent abundance of carbon containing molecules. The carbon is likely the dredged-up ashes of nuclear helium burning [
http://astrosun.tn.…] in the stellar interior. Carbon stars lose a significant fraction of their total mass in the form of a stellar wind [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] which ultimately enriches the interstellar gas [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] - the source of material for future generations of stars [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. TT Cyg is about 1,500 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus [
http://www.astro.wi…constellations/Cygnu s.html ].
Explanation
