NGC 3132 (Gary Imm)

NGC 3132

This object is a planetary nebula located 2800 light years away in the southern constellation of Vela at a declination of -40 degrees. This magnitude 9.4 PN spans 1.2 arc-minutes in our apparent view, which corresponds to a diameter of 1 light year. The mouseover compares my image with the Hubble image.

This object is one of the most spectacular PN in the sky and is nicknamed the Southern Ring for its resemblance to the Ring Nebula (M57). Although the outer rings are similar, the central star of this PN is much brighter than that of M57 (mag. 9.4 vs. mag. 14). We are looking at both of these PN from an almost end-on view, which is why we only see an oval shape. If we could change our perspective to a side-on view, we would see a bi-polar two lobed shape similar to M76.

This object also has the nickname of the Eight-Burst Nebula. Some say that this nickname is due to its figure 8 appearance through small telescopes, and others say that it is due to the number of rings which appear in detailed images. To me, it looks like there could be 8 scalloped edges around the circumference, which would imply 4 oblong rings with slight rotational offsets.

Interestingly, astronomers say that the bright central star is not the one which formed the nebula. Instead, it has a much hotter but dim (16th magnitude) companion, not visible in my image, which created and illuminates the nebula. Astronomers believe that the dual rotational motion of these two stars is responsible for the interesting multiple-edge shape of the nebula. If you look at the Hubble image, you can see the dim companion. It is located at the center of the nebula, whereas its bright companion is slightly offset.

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	4205245
PixInsight job	ZXK9AMH90VZ6YZLMYY8IFERXCDZ8J2XI
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

RA (center)	10h07m01s.844
RA (top/left)	10h07m42s.896
RA (top/right)	10h06m17s.359
RA (bottom/right)	10h06m20s.674
RA (bottom/left)	10h07m46s.475

Dec (center)	-40°26′08″.44
Dec (top/left)	-40°19′38″.12
Dec (top/right)	-40°20′29″.36
Dec (bottom/right)	-40°32′37″.94
Dec (bottom/left)	-40°31′46″.84

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