Meanings
- astronomyThe nebula and binary star HD 44179.
Figure 1 shows obtained images of the Red Rectangle. All of the sources consist of a bright core and an extended nebula.
2000 July, T. Miyata et al., “Spatially Resolved Spectra of the Red Rectangle in the N-band”, in Ryszard Szczerba, Sławomir K. Górny, editors, Post-AGB as a Phase of Stellar Evolution: Proceedings of the Toruń Workshop held July 5-7, 2000, Kluwer Academic Publishers, published 2001, →ISBN, page 3522 more examples
1987, Beverly T. Lynds, “Optical observations of nebulae”, in A. Dalgarno and David Layzer (eds.), Spectroscopy of astrophysical plasmas, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 12, The Red Rectangle is only one example of an infrared object that is detectable in the infrared because of grain emission.
1995, J.R. Miles, P.J. Sarre, and S.M. Scarrott, “Red Rectangle Emission Bands”, in Alexander G.G.M. Tielens and Theodore Peck Snow (eds.), The Diffuse Interstellar Bands, Springer, →ISBN, page 143, The Red Rectangle is a bipolar nebula with a remarkable spectrum in which emission is excited by the light of the central star HD44179.
Origin
Coined by astronomers Martin Cohen and Mike Merrill in 1973
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
Red Rectangle. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Red%20Rectangle
“Red Rectangle.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Red%20Rectangle. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Red Rectangle,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Red%20Rectangle.
Source: Red Rectangle on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.