The Necklace Nebula is beautiful. It is located in the summer constellation Sagitta (The Arrow) which is just below Vulpecula and above Aquila. This is a newly discovered example of a ring shaped planetary nebula and is approximately 15,000 light years away. It's bright ring is a half a light year in diameter making it a gigantic nebula in the night sky. Planetary nebulae are created by sun like stars in their final phase of stellar evolution. That sun like star in this case ia actually a binary star. This makes this nebula extremely unique. Astronomers estimate this nebula to be about 5,000 years old. What a pretty picture.
No comments:
Post a Comment