Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Perseus (Per)  ·  Contains:  Little Dumbbell  ·  M 76  ·  NGC 650
M76 Little Dumbbell Nebula, Peter Ilas
M76 Little Dumbbell Nebula
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M76 Little Dumbbell Nebula

M76 Little Dumbbell Nebula, Peter Ilas
M76 Little Dumbbell Nebula
Powered byPixInsight

M76 Little Dumbbell Nebula

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Description

Original FITS taken at 2x2 and 3x3 binning for L and colour channels were enlarged by a factor of 3 and 4.5 for deep resolution before stacking and further processing.

The Little Dumbbell Nebula derives its common name from its resemblance to the Dumbbell Nebula (M27).

It was originally thought to consist of two separate emission nebulae and was thus given two catalog numbers in the NGC 650 (south-western part) and 651 (north-eastern part) - see the annotated image.

The nebula is one of the faintest and hardest to see objects in Messier's list.

The bright bar-shaped main body is probably a slightly elliptical ring seen only a few degrees from edge-on. The ring seems to be expanding at 42 km/s.

The structure is classed as a bipolar planetary nebula (BPNe). The total nebula shines at the apparent magnitude of +10.1 with its central star or planetary nebula nucleus at +15.9 visual magnitude.

The nebula has the surface temperature of about 88,400 K, and is approaching us at −19.1 km/s.

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M76 Little Dumbbell Nebula, Peter Ilas

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Messier Catalog