The Dumbbell Nebula (M27) is a bright planetary nebula in Vulpecula, the glowing shell of a dying star and the first planetary nebula ever discovered.
At a glance
| type | nebula |
|---|---|
| distance from the Sun | 1,270 light-years (388 pc) |
| its light left it | 1,270 years ago |
| size in the piece | about 1.5 light-years acrossmodel |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with. Model marks a property of the piece’s galaxy model rather than a measurement.
About Dumbbell Nebula (M27)
When Messier came upon this nebula while hunting comets, it became the first known example of what were later called planetary nebulae. In a small telescope it looks like an hourglass or an apple core; deeper images fill in the fainter halo around it.
The nebula is the gas shed by a star like the Sun at the end of its life. Its exposed core, a very hot white dwarf at the centre, floods the shell with ultraviolet light that makes it glow, in the green of oxygen and the red of hydrogen and nitrogen.
What you see in the piece
Even at this scale it is tiny; fly to it and its hot central star sits inside the glowing shell.
Questions
How far away is the Dumbbell Nebula?
The Dumbbell Nebula (M27) is about 1,270 light-years (388 pc) from the Sun.
Can you see the Dumbbell Nebula with binoculars?
Yes, as a small faint patch in Vulpecula; a telescope shows its hourglass shape.