When the VLA's giant W50 image reached the NRAO Director's office, Heidi Winter, the Director's Executive Assistant, saw the likeness to a manatee, the endangered marine mammals known as "sea cows" that congregate in warm waters in the southeastern United States.
Florida Manatees are gentle giants that average around 10 feet long, weigh over 1000 pounds, and spend up to eight hours a day grazing on sea plants. They occupy the remainder of their day resting, often on their backs with their flippers crossed over their large bellies, in a pose closely resembling W50.
Dangerous encounters with boat propellers injure many of these curious herbivores, giving them deep, curved scars similar in appearance to the arcs made by the powerful jets on the large W50 remnant.
Thanks to Ms. Winter's suggestion, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory has adopted a new nickname for W50: The Manatee Nebula. In collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the NRAO will unveil the Manatee Nebula to the public during the annual Manatee Festival in Crystal River, Florida on a stage overlooking the largest natural concentration of wintering manatees in the world.
|Contact: Tania Burchell|
National Radio Astronomy Observatory