Menzel 3: Dissecting the ant

¹ Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, 38200 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain e-mail: [miguelsg;amr]@iac.es
² Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes, Ap. de Correos 321, 38700 Sta. Cruz de la Palma, Spain e-mail: rcorradi@ing.iac.es
³ Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195-1580, USA e-mail: balick@astro.washington.edu

Received: 22 April 2004
Accepted: 23 June 2004

Abstract

The structure and kinematics of the bipolar nebula Mz 3 have been investigated by means of HST, CTIO and ESO images and spectra. At least four distinct outflows have been identified which, from the inside to the outside, are the following: a pair of bright bipolar lobes, two opposite highly collimated column-shaped outflows, a conical system of radial structure, and a very dim, previously unnoticed, low-latitude and flattened (ring-like) radial outflow. 
A simple Hubble-law describes the velocity field of the ballisticaly expanding lobes, columns and rays, suggesting that their shaping has being done at very early stages of evolution, in a sort of eruptive events with increasing degree of collimation and expansion ages ranging from ~600 for the inner structures to ~1600 years (per kpc to the nebula) for the largest ones.