Except for the rings of Saturn, th RingNebula (M57) is probably the most famous celestial band.This planetarynebula's simple, graceful appearance is thought to be due toperspective -- our view from planet Earthlooking straight into what is actually barrel-shapedcloud of gas shrugged off by a dying central star.Astronomers of the HubbleHeritage Project produce thisstrikingly sharp image from Hubble Space Telescope observations using natural appearing colors to indicate the temperature of the stellar gas shroud.Hot blue gas near the energizing central stargives way to progressively cooler green and yellowgas at greater distances with the coolest red gas along the outer boundary Dark, elongated structurescan also be seen near the nebula's edge TheRing Nebula is about on light-year across and 2,000 light-years awayin the northern constellation Lyra.
No comments:
Post a Comment