This close up visible light view by nasa s hubble space telescope reveals new details of the ring nebula.
Ring nebula visible light.
Messier 57 m57 also known as the ring nebula is a well known planetary nebula located in the northern constellation lyra.
The object is tilted toward earth so that astronomers see the ring face on.
Located in the constellation lyra the nebula is a popular target for amateur astronomers.
I looked at it with my 5 inch apogee telescope and a 20x eyepiece.
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.
A three dimensional model of the ring nebula developed from.
The ring nebula also catalogued as messier 57 m57 or ngc 6720 is a planetary nebula in the northern constellation of lyra.
The ring nebula has an apparent magnitude of 8 8 and lies at an approximate distance of 2 300 light years from earth.
Previous observations by several telescopes had detected the gaseous material in the ring s central region.
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.
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.
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.
This close up visible light view by nasa s hubble space telescope reveals new details of the ring nebula.
Compass and scale provided.
The ring nebula is about 2 000 light years from earth and measures roughly 1 light year across.
The total light of ngc 3242 roughly equals that of an 8th magnitude star.
Image released may 23 2013.