Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Corvus (Crv)  ·  Contains:  NGC 4361
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NGC 4361, Gary Imm
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NGC 4361

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
NGC 4361, Gary Imm
Powered byPixInsight

NGC 4361

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Description

This object is a planetary nebula located almost 4000 light years away in the constellation of Corvus. Although its size is small at less than 2 minutes in diameter, it is large for a planetary nebula. This unusual planetary nebula resembles the shape of a small spiral galaxy more than that of a typical planetary nebula. The unique shape may be due to polar jets streaming from two closely spaced central stars rotating around each other, but scientists are not sure of the exact formation mechanism.

I see five distinct shapes in the planetary nebula - an outer bluish spherical shell, the distinctive denser bluish inner symmetric spiral structure, a purplish nonsymmetric section spanning vertically in the image, a whitish inner spherical structure, and the bright white central star.

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