Looking Down a Barrel of Gas at a Doomed Star
One of the most famous of all planetary nebulae. A dying star has thrown off some of its outer material thousands of years ago. The nebula is situated 2.000 light years away in the constellation Lyra.
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured the sharpest view yet of the most famous of all planetary nebulae: the Ring Nebula (M57). In this October 1998 image, the telescope has looked down a barrel of gas cast off by a dying star thousands of years ago. This photo reveals elongated dark clumps of material embedded in the gas at the edge of the nebula; the dying central star floating in a blue haze of hot gas. The nebula is about a light-year in diameter and is located some 2, 000 light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Lyra.
Credit:
About the Image
NASA caption
| Id: | opo9901a |
| Type: | Observation |
| Release date: | 6 January 1999, 06:00 |
| Size: | 1215 x 1241 px |
About the Object
| Name: | Ring Nebula |
| Type: | • Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Planetary • Nebulae Images/Videos |
| Distance: | 2500 light years |
Colours & filters
| Band | Wavelength | Telescope |
| Optical Heii |
469 nm | Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 |
| Optical Oii |
501 nm | Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 |
| Optical Nii |
658 nm | Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 |
