M57 - The Ring Nebula



This image of the Ring Nebula, also known as M57 or NGC 6720, was obtained through a 1% narrow-band filter centered at 2.122 microns, in the v=1-0 S(1) vibrational line of molecular hydrogen. The Ring Nebula is what is known as a planetary nebula, since astronomers first thought they looked like pale versions of the planets. Actually, a planetary nebula forms during the dying phase of stars which are about the same mass as our own sun. About 5 billion years from now, our sun will also form such a nebula. The bright inner ring is probably familiar to many amateur astronomers, and is easily visible in backyard telescopes. The faint wisps of gas outside of the bright inner nebula are from an earlier phase of mass loss.

The integration time was 10 minutes. The field-of-view of this image is about 300 arcseconds square, and the seeing was roughly 1.1 arcsec FWHM. The data have been scaled logarithmically to show both the bright inner ring and the faint bubble structure outside. The data were taken and reduced on September 13th, 1996, by Dave Thompson.