Friday, October 22, 2010

APOD 1.8

M57 in the Constellation Lyra

Lyra was a constellation we studied last week so I found this picture very fitting. The Ring Nebula M57 is one of the most famous celestial bands in the night sky. Like most Nebulae, this one was made from a dying central star. The Nebula itself is about 1 ly across and over 2,000 ly away from planet Earth. 

The image was taken by the Hubble Telescope using natural appearing colors to indicate the temperature differences within the emitted gas. It is very easy to see that the gas closer to the center is blue, thus hotter, and as it expands is becomes cooler.

Site: Picture from APOD

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