Provided by NASA, European Space Agency, Canadian Space Agency, and Space Telescope Science Institute
An image of planetary nebula "NGC 2392" was newly released by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and other organizations. The James Webb Space Telescope of the United States, Europe, and Canada captured it in infrared light. Located in Gemini, its distance from Earth is several thousand light-years. Planetary nebulae are formed when stars with masses of about half to eight times that of the Sun reach the end of their lives and shed their outer layers. Their beautiful and mysterious appearance makes them particularly eye-catching.
People who like astronomy might have thought "Wait, what?" seeing the headline "Lion Nebula" on the NASA website with this discovery. This is because another celestial body called the Lion Nebula exists as well. That is diffuse nebula "Sh2-132" in Cepheus.
In August 2020, NASA announced re-examinations of popular names for some celestial bodies. As an example, regarding NGC 2392 long called "Eskimo Nebula," NASA pointed out that "Eskimo is considered a colonialist term with a racist history" and decided not to use the name Eskimo Nebula thereafter.
In academic circles, NGC 2392 and Sh2-132 are distinguished by the names listed in astronomical catalogs. Nevertheless, many people, including astronomy fans, often call them by familiar popular names. Whoever thought of it, the central white dwarf looks like the nose of a lion, gases look like the face, and surrounding dust looks like the mane, making it certainly a perfect name, but... The European Space Agency (ESA) recently described it as a lion as well. Even if unofficial, the impact of these two agencies starting to use this name could be significant. Will confusion arise due to duplication of popular names? Discussions also seem to be ongoing as to whether the word Eskimo necessarily constitutes discrimination in the first place.
The lion in Cepheus might be grumbling, "I make up the whole body, while you only get to be the face!"
Original article was provided by the Science Portal and has been translated by Science Japan.