M27 - The Dumbbell Nebula (Sarah Mathews)

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M27 - The Dumbbell Nebula

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M27 - The Dumbbell Nebula

Stellar Metamorphosis & The Fox
Nestled some 1,200 light-years away in the constellation Vulpecula, Latin for “little fox”, the remains of what was once a main sequence star, vibrantly glows in a final farewell.

M27, the Dumbbell Nebula, bears the ever-expanding markings of its progenitor star’s gaseous outer layers that were shelled off when it grew to a red giant, as it could no longer fuse hydrogen into helium. A marked point in a star of this size’s life cycle that signals a new chapter. One that we see now as a planetary nebula where the remaining core in a final battle with gravity, contracted into a dense, white dwarf star. The white dwarf sits center stage amidst what was once its own; still able to radiate enough energy to excite and illuminate the central knots and dumbbell-like clouds of gases that spans 2 light-years across, or about half the distance from our Sun to its nearest stellar neighbor, Alpha Centauri.

Each planetary nebulae provides valuable insight by revealing what other stars are composed of. M27 contains several different types of gases, two of which seen here are hydrogen and oxygen.

Eventually, the gas will expand so far outward that the nebula as we know it will fade and the gases will take part in a new celestial lifecycle.

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This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
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This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
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	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
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Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

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Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
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Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

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Astrometry.net job	n/a
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
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M27 - The Dumbbell Nebula

M27 - The Dumbbell Nebula

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M27 - The Dumbbell Nebula

M27 - The Dumbbell Nebula

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