Ring Nebula

E461994

The Ring Nebula is a famous planetary nebula in the constellation Lyra, known for its bright, ring-shaped shell of ionized gas surrounding a hot central white dwarf.

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Statements (49)

Predicate Object
instanceOf astronomical object
deep-sky object
emission nebula
planetary nebula
age on the order of several thousand years
alsoKnownAs M57 NERFINISHED
Messier 57 NERFINISHED
NGC 6720 NERFINISHED
angularSize about 1.4 × 1.0 arcminutes
apparentMagnitudeV 8.8
bestSeenIn summer sky of the Northern Hemisphere
catalog Messier catalogue NERFINISHED
New General Catalogue NERFINISHED
centralStarApparentMagnitude about 15.8
centralStarEffectiveTemperature about 100,000 K
declination +33° 01′ 45″
discoveredBy Antoine Darquier de Pellepoix NERFINISHED
discoveryYear 1779
distanceFromEarth about 2,300 light-years
about 700 parsecs
dominantEmissionLines H-alpha
He II
[O III] NERFINISHED
hasCentralStar white dwarf
hasHalo faint outer halo of gas
hasMorphology elliptical planetary nebula
imagedBy Hubble Space Telescope NERFINISHED
James Webb Space Telescope NERFINISHED
ionizationSource ultraviolet radiation from central white dwarf
locatedIn Galactic halo
Milky Way
locatedInConstellation Lyra NERFINISHED
messierNumber M57 NERFINISHED
nearbyObject Sheliak (Beta Lyrae) NERFINISHED
Sulafat (Gamma Lyrae) NERFINISHED
nebulaExpansionVelocity about 20–30 km/s
ngcNumber NGC 6720 NERFINISHED
observableWith small telescope
observedIn infrared wavelengths
optical wavelengths
ultraviolet wavelengths
origin ejected outer layers of a dying star
partOf Lyra constellation region near Vega
physicalDiameter about 1 light-year
progenitorStarMass about 1.2 solar masses
rightAscension 18h 53m 35.1s
shape ring-like shell
spectralTypeOfCentralStar DAO white dwarf
structure ionized gas shell

Referenced by (2)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.