Gomez's Hamburger: A Proto-Planetary Nebula
What, in heaven, is that?
Sometimes astronomers see things on the sky they
don't immediately understand.
In 1985 this happened to
Arturo Gomez, and the object became known as Gomez's
Hamburger for its distinctive yet familiar shape.
After some investigation, the object was identified as a
proto-planetary nebula, a gas cloud emitted by a
Sun-like star just after its central
hydrogen fuel has all been
fused to
helium.
Gomez's Hamburger is on its
way to becoming a full-fledged
planetary nebula
in a few thousand years.
The light seen (the bun) is
reflected by
dust from the central star,
although the star itself is obscured by a thick
dust disk that
runs across the middle (the patty).
Gomez's Hamburger,
pictured above in a recent image from the
Hubble Space Telescope,
is only a fraction of a
light year across but located approximately
10,000 light years away towards the constellation of Sagittarius.