Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Lyra (Lyr)  ·  Contains:  IC 1296  ·  M 57  ·  NGC 6720  ·  PK063+13.1  ·  Ring Nebula
M 57, NGC 6720 Ring Nebula, rdhand
Powered byPixInsight

M 57, NGC 6720 Ring Nebula

M 57, NGC 6720 Ring Nebula, rdhand
Powered byPixInsight

M 57, NGC 6720 Ring Nebula

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

The Ring Nebula (NGC 6720) is a planetary nebula. Planetary nebula have nothing to do with planets.  Their shape confused early astronomers. They actually represent the beautiful death throes of a medium-sized star when the star blows off its outer layers.  The nebula then expands, cools and fades away over thousands of years.  The star becomes a white dwarf and slowly cools for trillions of years.  This nebula is about 2300 light-years distant and one light-year across.

Comments

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

M 57, NGC 6720 Ring Nebula, rdhand

In these public groups

Cloudy Nights

In these collections

Messier
Planetary Nebula