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planetary nebula

What is the Ring Nebula?

Famous doughnut-shaped planetary nebula, actually a barrel shape seen end-on.

Worth knowing about the Ring Nebula

You see the Ring Nebula as it was 2,552 years ago.

What it is
A shell of gas puffed off by a dying Sun-like star, lit up by the hot white dwarf the star has left at its centre.
How we know: Detailed images and motion measurements show we’re looking through more gas at the edges of a hollow, barrel-like shell.
The Ring Nebula — A model, seen from the Earth, with north up.
The numbers
Across1.04 light-years
Distance from us2,552 light-years
How big it looksabout 1.4 arcminutes — the full Moon is about 30

We use 2,552 light-years: Gaia’s parallax of the central star, with Gaia’s zero-point correction (Bailer-Jones et al. 2021). The same parallax read without the correction gives 2,569.

How anyone knows this

Things like it

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Games it appears in

Show the Ring Nebula in the model🧭 Where is the Ring Nebula?🕒 When can I see the Ring Nebula?📖 How the Milky Way fits together🌙 Plan an evening outside