A Tale of Two Nebulae
Credit & Copyright: Brian Lula
Explanation: This
colorful
telescopic view towards the northern constellation
Lyra
reveals dim outer regions around M57, popularly known as the
Ring Nebula. While modern astronomers still
refer to M57 as a
planetary nebula, at one light-year across M57 is
not a
planet but the gaseous shroud of a dying sun-like star. Roughly the same
apparent size as M57, the fainter, often
overlooked barred
spiral galaxy
IC1296 is at the lower
right and would have been referred to in the
early
20th century as a
spiral nebula. By chance the
pair are in the same field of view, and while they appear to have similar sizes
they are actually very far apart. M57 lies at a distance of a mere 2,000
light-years,
well within our own Milky Way galaxy.
Extragalactic
IC1296 is more like 200,000,000 light-years distant or about 100,000 times
farther away. Since they appear roughly similar in size, spiral nebula IC1296
must also be about 100,000
times
larger than planetary nebula M57.
Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry
Bonnell (USRA)
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