The Dumbbell Nebula

Eso_eso9846b_1024

eso_eso9846b October 7th, 1998

Credit: ESO/I. Appenzeller, W. Seifert, O. Stahl, M. Zamani

The Dumbbell Nebula -- also known as Messier 27 or NGC 6853 -- is a typical planetary nebula and is located in the constellation Vulpecula (The Fox). The distance is rather uncertain, but is believed to be around 1200 light-years. It was first described by the French astronomer and comet hunter Charles Messier who found it in 1764 and included it as no. 27 in his famous list of extended sky objects. Despite its class, the Dumbbell Nebula has nothing to do with planets. It consists of very rarefied gas that has been ejected from the hot central star, now in one of the last evolutionary stages. The gas atoms in the nebula are excited (heated) by the intense ultraviolet radiation from this star and emit strongly at specific wavelengths. In this image only light from a small wavelength range was allowed to pass and so was used to isolate emissions from particular atoms and ions. The image shows the intricate structure in the central part of the nebula. They are three-colour composite based on two interference ([OIII] at 501 nm and 6 nm FWHM - 5 min exposure time; H-alpha at 656 nm and 6 nm FWHM - 5 min) and one broadband (Bessell B at 429 nm and 88 nm FWHM; 30 sec) filtre images, obtained on September 28, 1998, during mediocre seeing conditions (0.8 arcsec). The CCD camera has 2048 x 2048 pix, each covering 24 x 24 µm and the sky fields shown measure 6.8 x 6.8 arcmin and 3.5 x 3.9 arcmin, respectively. North is up; East is left.

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso9846b/

Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, None, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
Dumbbell Nebula M 27 Messier 27
Subject - Milky Way
Nebula > Type > Planetary
Eso_eso9846b_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 19h 59m 36.7s
DEC = 22° 43’ 15.0”
Orientation
North is up
Field of View
3.4 x 3.8 arcminutes
Constellation
Vulpecula

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red VLT (FORS1) Optical (H-alpha) 656.0 nm
Orange VLT (FORS1) Optical (R) 655.0 nm
Yellow VLT (FORS1) Optical (HeII) 472.0 nm
Blue VLT (FORS1) Optical (u) 361.0 nm
Cyan VLT (FORS1) Optical (B) 429.0 nm
Green VLT (FORS1) Optical (Oiii) 501.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Red
Orange
Yellow
Blue
Cyan
Green
Eso_eso9846b_1280
×
ID
eso9846b
Subject Category
B.4.1.3  
Subject Name
Dumbbell Nebula, M 27, Messier 27
Credits
ESO/I. Appenzeller, W. Seifert, O. Stahl, M. Zamani
Release Date
1998-10-07T00:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso9846b/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Very Large Telescope, Very Large Telescope, Very Large Telescope, Very Large Telescope, Very Large Telescope, Very Large Telescope
Instrument
FORS1, FORS1, FORS1, FORS1, FORS1, FORS1
Color Assignment
Red, Orange, Yellow, Blue, Cyan, Green
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
H-alpha, R, HeII, u, B, Oiii
Central Wavelength
656, 655, 472, 361, 429, 501
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
299.903079934, 22.7208387818
Reference Dimension
2759.0, 3088.0
Reference Pixel
1284.79483438, 1554.55750201
Scale
-2.0542764921e-05, 2.0542764921e-05
Rotation
0
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
2868.0 ; 3088.0; 1338.79483438; 1554.55750201; 1.70970799129 95.20516562
Creator (Curator)
European Southern Observatory
URL
http://www.eso.org/
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
None
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
European Southern Observatory
Publisher ID
eso
Resource ID
eso9846b
Metadata Date
2023-10-11T09:27:12.664728
Metadata Version
1.1
×

 

Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

×

There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

Providers | Sign In