M57: The Ring Nebula
Credit: Composite Image Data -
Subaru Telescope (NAOJ), Hubble
Legacy Archive;
Processing and additional imaging - Robert Gendler
Explanation: Except for the rings
of Saturn, the
Ring Nebula (M57) is probably the
most famous celestial band. Its classic appearance is understood to be due to
perspective - our view from planet Earth looks down the center of a roughly
barrel-shaped cloud of glowing gas. But expansive looping structures are seen to
extend
far beyond the Ring
Nebula's familiar central regions in
this intriguing
composite of ground based and Hubble Space Telescope images with narrowband
image data from Subaru. Of course, in this well-studied example of a
planetary nebula, the glowing material
does not come from planets. Instead, the gaseous shroud
represents outer layers expelled from the dying,
once sun-like
star at the nebula's center. Intense ultraviolet light from the hot central
star
ionizes
atoms in the gas. Ionized oxygen atoms produce the characteristic greenish
glow and
ionized hydrogen the prominent red
emission. The central ring of the Ring Nebula is about one light-year across and
2,000 light-years away. To accompany
tonight's shooting stars it
shines in the northern constellation Lyra.
Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry
Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official:
Phillip Newman Specific rights
apply.
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