The
Dumbbell Nebula (also known as the
Apple Core Nebula,
Messier 27, and
NGC 6853) is a
planetary nebula (nebulosity surrounding a white dwarf) in the constellation
Vulpecula, at a distance of about 1360 light-years. It was the first such nebula to be discovered, by
Charles Messier in 1764. The central star, a
white dwarf progenitor, is estimated to have a radius of 0.13 light seconds.
Like many nearby planetary nebulae, the Dumbbell contains knots. Its central region is marked by a pattern of dark and bright cusped knots and their associated dark tails. The knots vary in appearance from symmetric objects with tails to rather irregular tail-less objects. Similarly to the
Helix Nebula and the
Eskimo Nebula, the heads of the knots have bright cusps which are local
photoionization fronts.
The Dumbbell Nebula appears shaped like a
prolate spheroid and is viewed from our perspective along the plane of its equator. In 1992, Moreno-Corral et al. computed that its rate of expansion angularly was, viewed from our distance, no more than 2.3 arcseconds (″) per century. From this, an upper limit to the age of 14,600 years may be determined. In 1970, Bohuski, Smith, and Weedman found an expansion velocity of 31 km/s. Given its semi-minor axis radius of 1.01 light-years, this implies that the kinematic age of the nebula is 9,800 years.
Source: Wikipedia
Data acquired by Insight Observatories using AFIL-7 located at Remote Skygems Observatories, Nerpio, Spain.
Available from the Starbase website:
https://starbase.insightobservatory.com/imageset/231https://starbase.insightobservatory.com/imageset/230The final image is a combination of LRGB nebulosity & RGB stars, and continuum-subtracted Ha and OIII blended into the red and blue channels respectively. Continuum subtraction was undertaken using the synthetic colour flow method described by
@Charles Hagen in his Night Photons blog (
https://www.nightphotons.com/guides/advanced-narrowband-combination)
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