Dumbbell Nebula
by Jennifer Rondinelli Reilly - Fine Art Photography
Title
Dumbbell Nebula
Artist
Jennifer Rondinelli Reilly - Fine Art Photography
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
The Dumbbell nebula, also known as Messier 27, pumps out infrared light in this image from NASAs Spitzer Space Telescope. The nebula was named after its resemblance to a dumbbell as seen in visible light. It was discovered in 1764 by Charles Messier, who included it as the 27th member of his famous catalog of nebulous objects. Though he did not know it at the time, this was the first in a class of objects, now known as planetary nebulae, to make it into the catalog.
Planetary nebulae, historically named for their resemblance to gas-giant planets, are now known to be the remains of stars that once looked a lot like our sun. When sun-like stars die, they puff out their outer gaseous layers. These layers are heated by the hot core of the dead star, called a white dwarf, and shine with infrared and visible-light colors. Our own sun will blossom into a planetary nebula when it dies in about five billion years.
The Dumbbell nebula is 1,360 light-years away in the Vulpecula constellation, and stretches across 4.5 light-years of space. That would more that fill the space between our sun and the nearest star, and it demonstrates how effective planetary nebulae are at returning much of a stars material back to interstellar space at the end of their lives.
I have given this high resolution deep space Spitzer photograph a special fine art treatment that turns an ordinary telescope image into a breathtaking, high quality, fine art photograph.
Deep space art makes an excellent fine art gift! Buy online space images today!
Uploaded
December 13th, 2014
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