Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Perseus (Per)
Different view of different ways stars end their lives, Sh2-116 and G160.8+02.6, David Elmore
Different view of different ways stars end their lives, Sh2-116 and G160.8+02.6
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Different view of different ways stars end their lives, Sh2-116 and G160.8+02.6

Different view of different ways stars end their lives, Sh2-116 and G160.8+02.6, David Elmore
Different view of different ways stars end their lives, Sh2-116 and G160.8+02.6
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Different view of different ways stars end their lives, Sh2-116 and G160.8+02.6

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Description

This is a single region straddling Auriga and Perseus containing a Planetary Nebula (Sh2-216) bottom, and a super nova remnant G160.8+02.6 top (upper left portion of the SNR is named Sh2-221).  Sh2-216 is the largest visible planetary nebula in angular size at about 1.6° (3 X the Moon’s diameter) and is relatively close at about 400 light years therefore its large angular size. A planetary nebula is the last phase in the life of a moderately massive star (like our Sun) when the star exhausts its hydrogen fuel, shrinks in size blowing off its outer layers and perhaps moves on to fusing some heavier elements. When it can no longer collapse and therefore heat enough to continue fusing ever heavier elements, it spends the rest of eternity as a white dwarf star.  A more massive star such as the one that formed G160.8+02.6 exhausts all the elements it can fuse (up to Fe) suffers a core collapse when gravity overpowers its energy from nuclear reactions, rebounds, and catastrophically blows off its envelope leaving behind the core, now a neutron star or for the most massive stars a black hole.  It is then surrounded by a cloud of gas and star bits including even heavier elements created in the explosion.  Age and distance of G160.8+02.6 are known only approximately according the the University of Manitoba that lists an age between 2600 and 9200 years and distance between 300 and 1200 light years.  It is just a coincidence that these two objects share the same field of view.
Also in this field are a couple of star-forming regions, tiny Sh2-219 and the bright Sh2-117, both right of Sh2-221. The nebula between Sh2-216 and Sh2-221 is LBN755 with dark cloud Bernard 25 in front of it.  The glint at the top is a telescope artifact from nearby Capella.
This is a narrow band image utilizing the Hubble Palette.  Hydrogen-alpha shown as green, Oxygen III as blue, and Sulfur II as red.
2 field mosaic recorded over three nights in January 2022 composed from 73 individual 10-minute exposures (1/2 day of shutter open time).

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Different view of different ways stars end their lives, Sh2-116 and G160.8+02.6, David Elmore