July 25, 2011 - Astronomy Now
A new planetary nebula, recently discovered thanks to the combined efforts of amateur and professional astronomers and within sight of the Kepler spacecraft, could hold the key to understanding how our own Sun's life will end.
The detection of the nebula, Kronberger 61 (Kn 61), along with a striking new image of it from the Gemini Observatory, was presented this week at the International Astronomical Union symposium in Tenerife. It's named after its discoverer, Matthias Kronberger, a member of a group of amateur astronomers called the Deep Sky Hunters, who devote their spare time to hunting through existing datasets to find objects like this. Such a search is difficult because they are "extremely rare and each, a valuable gem," according to George Jacoby of the Giant Magellan Telescope Organization and the Carnegie Observatories.
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