Gomez's Hamburger
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Gomez's Hamburger is a protoplanetary nebula, or a star that is in a state of evolution immediately before the true planetary nebula stage. Its official designation is IRAS 18059-3211. It can be found in the constellation Sagittarius, and is estimated to be approximately 6500 light-years away from planet earth.
It was discovered in 1985 on sky photographs obtained by Arturo Gomez, an astronomer at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. The photos suggested that there was a dark band across the object, but its exact structure was difficult to determine because of the atmospheric turbulence that hampers all images taken from the ground. The star itself has a surface temperature of approximately 10,000 °C (18,000 °F).
The "hamburger buns" are light reflecting off dust, and the "patty" is the dark band of dust in the middle.
[edit] References
http://www.astrosurf.com/antilhue/gomezhamburger.htm http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2002/19/fastfacts/
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