Minkowski 2-55 (M 2-55) Planetary Nebula (Douglas J Struble)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Cepheus (Cep)

Image of the day 08/31/2022

Minkowski 2-55 (M 2-55) Planetary Nebula, Douglas J Struble

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Minkowski 2-55 (M 2-55) Planetary Nebula

Image of the day 08/31/2022

Powered byPixInsight

Minkowski 2-55 (M 2-55) Planetary Nebula

This planetary nebula was pretty challenging for my second rig; Stellarvue SVX102T-R Raptor. After some careful processing I was able to tease out some detail I was pretty happy with, though.

Minkowski 2-55 (M2-55, PK 116+8.1, PN G116.2+08.5) is a planetary nebula located in the constellation of Cepheus, some 2254 light years away. It was discovered in 1947 by the German-American astronomer Rudolph Minkowski on photo plates in the Newton focus of the 60 inch or 100 inch telescope on Mount Wilson.

You can clearly see the two bipolar lobes. The lobe aligned approx. NE to SW is approx. 67.2” x 36.6” and the other, aligned approx. NW to SE is 65.5” x 34.3”. This suggests they formed within a short period of time. Where the two cross one and other we can see lumpy features, esp. in the four corners. These regions may be projection features where the two lobes interact.

The central region is large and probably carved out by increasing thermal pressure as the planetary nebula evolved. It is thought to be quite old. Gaia DR2 data suggests an age of 92,191 years old. Infrared observations show the central cavity to be full of dust. This may be why its so difficult to make out the central star which has a mass of ~0.5 solar with a surface temperature of 55,000 K and is about 35 times brighter than our own sun.

Planetary Nebulae

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Image of the day 08/31/2022

Minkowski 2-55 (M 2-55) Planetary Nebula

Image of the day 08/31/2022

Minkowski 2-55 (M 2-55) Planetary Nebula

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Image of the day 08/31/2022

Minkowski 2-55 (M 2-55) Planetary Nebula

Image of the day 08/31/2022

Minkowski 2-55 (M 2-55) Planetary Nebula

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