Rings Around the Ring Nebula
From NASA’s Astronomy
Picture of the Day
It is a familiar sight
to sky enthusiasts with even a small telescope. There is much more to the Ring Nebula (M57), however,
than can be seen through a small
telescope.
The easily visible central
ring is about one light-year across,
but this
remarkably deep exposure - a collaborative effort combining data from
three different large telescopes - explores the looping
filaments of glowing gas extending much farther from the nebula's central
star.
This remarkable composite image includes
narrowband hydrogen image, visible light emission, and infrared light emission.
Of course, in this well-studied example of
a planetary nebula, the glowing
material does not come from planets. Instead, the gaseous shroud represents
outer layers expelled from a dying, sun-like star.
The Ring Nebula is
about 2,000 light-years away toward the musical constellation Lyra.
Image Credit: Hubble, Large Binocular Telescope, Subaru Telescope; Composition & Copyright: Robert Gendler