Jay McNeil's Nebula

Description: This is a 90 minute luminance combined with 20 minutes each RGB taken on the night of 01/23/04 with a Takahashi FTC-76 @f/5.1 using an SBIG ST-10XME CCD. The seeing wasn't very good on this particular night , so I thought it was just a "so-so" image until I examined it further and found something really neat and unusual in the field. The new nebula appears as a small but conspicuous elongated object just to the upper right of M78 in this pic. A tight but uneven double star is present just below the peculiar feature. Note north is left.

UPDATE 2/2704--Barbara Wilson writes:  Here is the text of Jay's email to Bo Reipurth at Gemini on Feb 2, 2004 (note this is pre IAU announcement) It shows just how much research and time he put into this before contacting the world's expert Bo Reipurth with his discovery.            ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thank you so much for your time and patience, Bo. After noticing the odd "stellaring" at the southern tip of my nebula on my red frames, I began to
do a little research. Wading through the online journals, using my very limited physics background and utilizing your assessment of what is possibly
going on in my picture, this is what I've come across. I believe that the new nebula is a cometary-type reflection nebula appearing as a twisted (possibly hollow) cone of reflected light with a very faint "star" (termed used very loosely at this point) at it's very southern apex. This "star" appears to be at the very extreme limits of my image's resolution and magnitude limit, so I would think it to be in the 17-20 Vmag range. It just happens that the position of this "star" coincides very precisely with not only the IRAS point source 05436-0007, but also  with the sub-millimeter source [JFM2001] SMM J054613-00061 (aka OriBsmm 55), a corresponding 2MASS IR source, and last but certainly not least-- a compact dust core/radio source known as LMZ 12. According to several online papers, LMZ 12 has a mass between .4 and .7 solar, an effective dust temperature
between 19 and 30K, and according to several factors may be a very young and deeply embedded class I YSO with a heavily obscuring accretion disc. Now here's the really cool part. If this particular dust core (residing well within the error ellipse of IRAS 05436-0007) is truly the apex/luminating source of my nebula, and the apparent nNE alignment of my nebula is true, then one can very easily trace the axis of symmetry of the new nebula all the way from the very faint "star" at it's apex through the nebula and directly to the bow shock HH 23 located just over 2  arcminutes to the nNE! In other words, if all of the involved objects are plotted very accurately, there is almost a perfectly symmetrical alignment  between my suspected faint "star", the "opened end" of my proposed cone-shaped nebula, the knot-like HH 22, and the very faint bow shock of HH 23...  Could all of this be pure coincidence, or could there really be a physical association of such a nature? One thing still puzzles me though...  If the
"star" at my nebula's apex is indeed the star both luminating the new reflection nebula and the driving source of the HH 22/ HH 23 flow, then why would it suddenly become visible? If measurements done only a few years ago resulted in a suspected thickened accretion disk blocking our line of sight to the core-like object LMZ 12, then what exactly could have happened to the disc and all of the dust immediately surrounding the source??? Is it just suddenly blown away or redistributed in some manner or another? Could this "new" object be the result of an FU Orionis type event? I'm not
certain as to what exactly defines an FU Ori star, but it seems that the latest literature attempts to link such events to possible disruptions in
accretion discs. Wow, all of this stuff is simply amazing--and I know that you can't really tell, but this has got me very excited. Keep in touch and thank you once again,
Jay

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2/10/04

BBC news:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/sci/tech/3479615.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3479615.stm

Jay's Photo: http://wkaa.net/gallery/mcneil/m78Lrgb

The (visible) birth of a new star:  http://spiff.rit.edu/classes/phys440/lectures/new_star/new_star.html

On vsnet it has been reported that a stellar component has appeared in the nebula: http://www.nayoro-star.jp/photo/nebula/winter/m78.html#m78

Jay has written an article that he requests to be put in Guidestar: http://tinyurl.com/28zd3

Here is a url to BVRI photometry taken with the Navy 1 meter and CCD (Feb 13UT): ftp://ftp.nofs.navy.mil/pub/outgoing/aah/sequence/mcneil.dat

Early images are now being found by astrophotographers and others looking around  on the web, but apparently no one but Jay noticed that this object was a new object. The object evidently is continuing to brighten by reports I have seen see below for a visual estimate of the new stellar component!

There has been much discussion of McNeil's Nebula on the SBIG Yahoogroup.  Cord Scholz appears to have captured the new nebula on October 24, 2003 in this image:
http://www.astro-image.com/temp/mcneal.jpg

Jay replies:
Thanks much Cord! In this stretched image, the known object HH 22appears as the non-stellar fuzzy "blob" just above the center of the double star. Now, if you look closely, there is a similar blob (albeit slightly fainter) just to the right and up a little from HH22, this is our object of interest. And you must have caught it JUST as it was starting to flare, because this is the earliest image yet to actually show HH22 and the blob associated with the star that is presently in outburst (IRAS 05436-0007).
This is the sort'a stuff that we need guys!
Thanks again,
Jay

Here is a link to Jay McNeil's web site http://wkaa.net/gallery/mcneil

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2/17/04

Kenneth Drake writes:

Finding M78 from memory with just a Telrad was refreshing, but judging by the visibility of it at 45x, seeing McNeil's Nebula was not going to be easy. My starting point was the 10th mag Tycho star just 10 minutes west of the core of M78. A nice arc of fainter stars stretch west for about 5 minutes and fit perfectly into half the field of the 5 mm Takahashi LE (288x in my 10"). The end star of the arc is GSC 116:135 at 5h45m44.8s +00d01m58.9s --mag 13.6. It may be brighter than that since it was very easy at 288x. A line drawn from this star back to the bright starting point star form a nearly right angle with the new nebula 9' away in p.a.167 from the 10th mag star. The field of McNeil's Nebula is anything but rich in an 11' field with a 10" f/5.6 scope at 288x from 53 miles north of Houston!! If I put the 10th mag star (GSC 116:135) at the NNW edge of the field, McN1 would be at the other side of the field. After about 30 minutes of fighting "spurious sky glow", I was able to hold McNeil's Nebula with averted vision as a 10 arc second, very faint smudge and the 14.8 mag star to its east about 50% of the time. My skies were about as transparent as they get here - about mag 6-6.2. The seeing was very poor, about a 2-3 on a scale of 10. The coatings on the 10 inch mirror are fairly new enhanced aluminum and the scope is well baffled. When I finished my observation, the field had just crossed the meridian. To the south is Houston and the Conroe area so the ambient light level seemed was fairly high. I think this nebula is bright enough that really good skies will allow it to be seen in 8 inch scopes.

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2/17/04

Barbara Wilson writes:

Jay has just this evening been contacted by the Gemini Public Information and Outreach Officer, and they are looking into the feasibilities of flying him out to Hawaii to see what they are doing, and for the press release on his Nebula and the findings with the Gemini. They say the images are spectacular with the 8 meter Gemini! The paper will be out in Astrophysical Journal in about 2 weeks or less! Gemini people wanted to know if he could get away to go to Hawaii. He was also on the front page of the Paducah Sun today with a full color image that he took of his nebula.

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2/17/04

Sky and Telescope has a new article: Amateur Astronomer Discovers Newborn Nebula
To read the article, click here.

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2/17/04

Barbara Wilson writes:

The IAU has reports from the Gemini telescope that the near infrared counterpart to Jay's Nebula has brightened by 3.6 magnitudes in the J band since the 2 MASS values from October 1988. They think that  IRAS 05436-0007's currently undergoing an 'EXor' eruption.

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2/19/04

Eric Westphal writes:

I don't think this diminishes McNeil's accomplishment, but apparently the nebula does have a history of flaring in the recent past.
This appeared on the SEDS webpage today:  http://www.seds.org/messier/more/m078_mcneil.html

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2/22/04

Sky and Telescope article:Amateur astronomer Jay McNeil's January 23rd discovery of a newborn nebula near Messier 78 is proving to be even more intriguing than first thought. From images obtained from the S&T archives, it now seems that this nebula has been playing peekaboo for quite some time. To read the full story, click here.

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2/22/04

Astronomy Picture of the Day-- http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040219.html

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2/23/04

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2/23/04

From Yahoo News: Amateur Finds New Nebula with Small Telescope-- In an era of huge ground-based telescopes, clever robotic sky scanners and powerful observatories in orbit, there are few deep space objects in our galaxy that escape notice by professional astronomers. So no one was more surprised about the discovery of a new nebula than the amateur who stumbled upon it with his small backyard telescope. To read the full story, click here.

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2/24/04

Barbara Wilson writes: Note that this website below has updated their information with lots more news and big scope images as well. There is a link to it on the HAS webpage on Jay McNeil as well. http://spiff.rit.edu/classes/phys440/lectures/new_star/new_star.html  This website states: " It appears that Chandra will be looking at the new star as a Target Of Opportunity in early March!"
I think it is important to note that Jay took an especially deep image on Jan 23rd, I think about 1.5 hours with his 3 inch. How many people have that dedication to take such a long image with a small telescope? When Jay sent me his first image (a week or so before the IAU announcement), I could not find anything on this object through the usual literature search or using the POSS images. Jay checks every image that he takes against the Palomar Sky Survey images of the 1950's or other well known source images available. It was uncataloged period, not in Simbad, the usual place one goes to look for galactic objects. (NED is extragalactic only) I wonder how many people would have found and/or examined the Evered Kreimer image on SEDS or in the Mallas and Kreimer book on the Messier Objects, thus finding Jay's Nebula independently and discovered the previous brightening back in the 1960's if Jay had not noticed it on his images and its subsequent announcement to the world via the IAU???  It sure had not been reported anywhere that I can find, except after the fact of Jay's work. The fact is he brought it to the attention of the experts, and has increased our body of knowledge on these rare events as I previously stated. And here below is a statement from Brian Skiff of Lowell Observatory posted to the amastro list server on Feb 20th. Those of you who have followed this discovery, know that Brian guided Jay to the right experts when Jay contacted him regarding what he found on his image from Jan 23rd.
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A lot of astronomical objects (and probably things in other sciences as well) are often named for the _last_ person to discover them. A classic example is in the same part of the sky as McNeil's Nebula: Barnard's Loop. It was first found by Bill Herschel _visually_ in the 1780s, then recovered by W.H. Pickering photographically, then finally by Barnard. Who pointed out the previous observations? Barnard himself, in an ApJ paper with some wide-field photography. So of course it got named for him!
\Brian

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2/24/04

Paul & Liz Downing writes: Spoke to Jay last evening and was waiting for a call from the Hubble team.  Seems they are planning some Hubble time to image this exciting newly discovered nebula.

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2/24/04

Another article from USA Today on the Jay McNeil nebula: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-02-24-new-nebula_x.htm

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2/24/04

Barbara Wilson writes: Lists all the visual sightings of the nebula and here I quote from it:  (Pretty funny stuff!!) Feb 14th Barbara Wilson (probably the world's finest visual observer) with the 36-inch of light-polluted George Observatory in or near Houston, Texas. [Barbara signs herself "proud mama" in relation to Jay McNeil. I'm not sure whether she means that literally (their ages are right, I think), or whether she just means that she was Jay's mentor who took Jay to the Texas Star Party year after year when he was a teenager and taught him to be a leading-edge visual observer.] http://victoria.rasc.ca/articles/2004/20040220_RASCals_McNeils_Nebula.txt

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2/26/04

John Blubaugh writes: I saw this new article on Space.com about Jay's new nebula. http://space.com/scienceastronomy/mystery_monday_040223.html

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3/4/04

Eric Westphal writes: This article appeared in the New York Times on 3/3 - Amateur Astronomer in Ky. Discovers Nebula By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- While poking around the night sky with a telescope at home, amateur astronomer Jay McNeil discovered a nebula. In what astronomy groups believe is the first such discovery by an amateur in 65 years, McNeil photographed the illuminated cloud of gas and dust lit by what astronomers believe is a newborn star. Such a discovery is exceedingly rare, said Bo Reipurth, who confirmed the find at the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii, home to one of the world's largest telescopes. ``This is exciting for all astronomers, especially those interested in the birth of stars,'' Reipurth said. ``We tend to think of the sky as fixed and unchanging, so when we see something new it's important.'' According to McNeil and the space education group, Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, fewer than a dozen other similar discoveries have been made, with the last one made by an amateur in 1939. McNeil's nebula is about 1,500 light years from Earth, meaning that what he witnessed was a star being born centuries ago. This particular nebula did not show up in sky survey photographs from 1951-91. It was reported in 1966, but was never recorded, according to the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. McNeil, a satellite dish installer from Paducah who's been an amateur astronomer for 20 years, first saw the nebula on Jan. 23 while looking at star formation regions in the Orion constellation. He snapped pictures of Orion through the 3-inch lens of his telescope, but the images sat idle for days before being processed. Once he had them developed, though, McNeil noticed a star he hadn't seen in previous sky surveys -- what turned out to be the nebula.  ``It was just too conspicuous an object for me not to have seen before,'' he said. After realizing he had something unique on his hands, McNeil contacted a friend, Brian Skiff, with the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz. Skiff also saw something new and referred McNeil to Reipurth. Within 48 hours, Reipurth focused the large telescope at the university on McNeil's find and confirmed it. Getting Reipurth to act so quickly was an indication of just how unusual spotting the nebula was, McNeil said, since scientists reserve time on the telescope as much as a year in advance. ``The wheels of science do not move that quickly,'' McNeil said. ``That told me this was quite a discovery.'' The discovery has thrilled amateur astronomers in bluegrass country, said Warren Wepking, president of the Western Kentucky Amateur Astronomers. ``We're all just so excited,'' Wepking said. ``This is something that doesn't happen very often.'' For the 32-year-old McNeil, the discovery is the payoff of a passion he's had since he was a teenager and saving money to buy telescopes. ``It didn't do much to attract the girls,'' he said. ``But this is something permanent. It's just what I do.''

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3/6/04

Steve Goldberg writes: Here is a link to the NPR news story this morning with Jay McNeil.  Length is 4 minutes. http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1749672

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3/14/04

Barbara Wilson writes: The popular press has picked up McNeil's finally. To read the full story, click here.

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3/14/04

Barbara Wilson writes: I just found out that Jay McNeil's Nebula was proposed for a Target of Opportunity observation on the Very Large Array---M. Claussen Search for water, OH masers, and radio continuum from IRAS 05436-0007---We propose to search for water masers, 1720 MHz OH masers, and the radio continuum from the recently discovered nebula around IRAS 05436-0007 (IAU Circular 8284, 09 Feb 2004). Detection of either or both masers will allow follow-up high angular resolution observations with VLBI, allowing kinematics of an accretion disk around a young stellar object with unprecedented spatial resolution.

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3/15/04

Barbara Wilson writes: Here is the latest IAU on McNeil's Nebula. IRAS 05436-0007-- T. Simon, University of Hawaii; and S. D. Brittain, E. L.
Gibb, and T. W. Rettig, University of Notre Dame, report on a high-resolution Keck NIRSPEC spectrum of the near-infrared counterpartto IRAS 05436-0007 (cf. IAUC 8284).  The 2-5-micron data (Feb. 27.3 UT) show a substantial amount of cold polar and apolar (cf. Ehrenfreund et al. 1997, A.Ap. 328, 649) CO ice.  Initial model fits to the ice profiles are consistent with predominantly cold (< 30 K) amorphous water ice and cold, predominantly apolar CO ice (both have optical depth tau about 0.6).  Also present are broadened emission lines of 12CO (1-0), (2-1), and (3-2), as well as 13CO, which likely originate from warm gas (a few thousand degrees K) in an inner accretion disk region (< 1 AU).   Narrow 12CO absorption components are superposed on the underlying emission features.  The narrow absorption components, with the same radial velocity as the emission lines, suggest substantial cold circumstellar material from a flared disk (cf. Brittain et al. 2004, Ap.J., submitted).  In contrast to the findings published on IAUC 8301, the hydrogen lines are not strongly detected in the NIRSPEC data.  The hot and cold gas surrounding the central star are typical of a young T-Tau star, but the relatively deep water and CO ice features together would be unique for the class.  Both absorptions indicate that the underlying star is embedded deeply within the Orion L1630 cloud and thus at an earlier stage of evolution, very possibly a class-I object in transition.   (C) Copyright 2004 CBAT

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3/26/04

A NEW STAR IS BORN

Barbara Wilson writes: The Gemini data on Jay's Nebula is now released. A timely discovery by American amateur astronomer Jay McNeil, followed immediately by observations at the Gemini Observatory, has provided a rare glimpse into the slow, yet violent birth of a star about 1,500 light-years away. The resulting findings reveal some of the strongest stellar winds ever detected around an embryonic Sun-like star. To read more about this story, click here.

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3/31/04

ApJ Letter on McNeil's Nebula

Barbara Wilson writes: Finally, the paper on McNeil's is available on line.
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IRAS 05436-0007 and the Emergence of McNeil's Nebula
A first look at the astrophysical data for McNeil's Nebula and the illuminating star have been submitted to 'Astrophysical Journal Letters' by Bo Reipurth and Colin Aspin. It provides a very nice summary of what's new up to now. The paper is available from the astro-ph server: http://www.arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0403667
\Brian

Mc Neil's Nebula in Orion: The Outburst History

Another ApJ Letter, this time from a Venezuela/Harvard group, reports additional data on the star and nebula, including a complete time-series of images from late last year showing the development of the object in the I Band (about 8000A).
http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0404012
\Brian