Messier 27 - Blog Posts

Close-up of M27, the Dumbbell Nebula

Credit: NASA/ESA, Hubble

Picture of M27, the Dumbbell nebula (aka the Apple Core Nebula), I took at the end of last month. This is a planetary nebula, it's the result of a star similar to our sun, that had turned into a red giant at the end of its life, ejecting its outer layer of gas and plasma into space. A planetary nebula is probably a relatively ''short'' phenomena, lasting around 10 000 years. Once the central star has ejected most of its hydrogen/helium and that the nuclear fusion in it has stopped, the nebula will start to cool down and disappear while the star turns into a white dwarf. Planetary nebula have an important role in redistributing some of the matter from dead/dying stars in the interstellar medium.

I personally think that photo is good, but some of the more faint external structures are barely visible, might take another picture of it and/or more photos to stack later in the month.