Thi colorfultelescopic view towards the northern constellatio Lyra reveals dim outer regions around M57,popularly known as the Ring Nebula.While modern astronomers stil referto M57 as a planetary nebula,at one light-year across M57 is not a planetbut the gaseous shroud of a dying sun-like star.Roughly the same apparent size as M57, the fainter, ofte overlookedbarred spiral galaxy IC1296 is at the lower right andwould have been referred to in th early 20th century as spiral nebula.By chance the pair are in the same field of view, and while theyappear to have similar sizes they are actually veryfar apart.M57 lies at a distance of a mere 2,00 light-years, well within our ownMilky Way galaxy Extragalactic IC1296 is morelike 200,000,000 light-years distant or about 100,000 times farther away.Since they appear roughly similar in size, spiral nebula IC1296must also be about 100,00 times larger than planetary nebula M57.
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