The ring nebula also catalogued as messier 57 m57 or ngc 6720 is a planetary nebula in the northern constellation of lyra.
Ring nebula visible light.
This visualization zooms into the constellation lyra to the location of the ring nebula and an image from the hubble space telescope visible light and the large binocular telescope infrared light.
Visible light observations from the hubble space telescope and infrared imagery from the large binocular telescope were combined to create this dramatic view of the ring nebula.
A planetary nebula the ring nebula formed when a medium sized star shed the outer layers of its atmosphere at the end of its life.
Previous observations by several telescopes had detected the gaseous material in the ring s central region.
It has the designation ngc 6720 in the new general catalogue.
The ring nebula has an apparent magnitude of 8 8 and lies at an approximate distance of 2 300 light years from earth.
Nasa esa everyone loves this cosmic donut.
Compass and scale provided.
Messier 57 m57 also known as the ring nebula is a well known planetary nebula located in the northern constellation lyra.
With a disk only 0 5 in diameter the surface brightness of this planetary is quite high averaging about 10 times greater than the ring nebula in lyra.
A three dimensional model of the ring nebula developed from.
The object is tilted toward earth so that astronomers see the ring face on.
This close up visible light view by nasa s hubble space telescope reveals new details of the ring nebula.
This close up visible light view by nasa s hubble space telescope reveals new details of the ring nebula.
I looked at it with my 5 inch apogee telescope and a 20x eyepiece.
The total light of ngc 3242 roughly equals that of an 8th magnitude star.
Image released may 23 2013.