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M76, The Little Dumbbell Nebula, a planetary nebula (NGC650) |
Planetary nebula M76 is one of the fainter
Messier objects. It is most commonly known as the Little Dumbbell Nebula
because of it's passing resemblance to
M27.
It also is sometimes called the
Cork Nebula (for the bright cylindrical core), or the Butterfly Nebula for the "wings"
either side of the core, or occasionally the Bow Tie nebula. At one time it
was given two NGC numbers as it was suspected to be a double nebula with two
components in contact. Perhaps a better way to look at and understand it is
as a cross section of a doughnut. The "cork" is the doughnuts hole, and the
wings are the semi transparent doughnut. The wings were probably
puffed away during the end stages of the parent star's Red Giant phase. The
doughnut hole may have been created more violently as ejecta from the polar
regions of the parent star. Today the central "star" is the core of the
former star, an earth size white dwarf remnant
radiating at some 60,000 degrees. It is slightly bluish central star in this
image. It glows at only a magnitude 16.2, three times fainter than we see
Pluto. It will cool down over the coming tens of billions of years,
eventually being a cold dark stellar cinder. The distance to M76, as with many planetary nebulae, is poorly known, with some consensus settling around 3,400. Accordingly, the long dimensions of the cork would be about 1 light year long. It can be found high in the sky south of the Cassiopeia "W", just at the upper east end of Andromeda. |
10" F6.3
Schmidt Cassegrain reflector, Baader coma corrector, Modified Canon 40D at Prime focus, with a
Hutech light polution filter |