The Little Dumbbell Nebula, also known as Messier 76, M76, NGC 650/651, the Cork Nebula, and the Barbell Nebula, is a planetary nebula located 3,400 light-years away in the constellation Perseus. This nebula is a popular target for telescopes in the summer in the Northern Hemisphere. In honor of its 34th anniversary on April 23, 2024, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope shared an image of this nebula to showcase its capabilities.
NASA’s new image reveals two glowing lobes of gas and dust on both sides of a central bar in the Little Dumbbell Nebula. Scientists believe that these rings were caused by a second star that had been consumed by the central white dwarf star. The white dwarf in this nebula is one of the hottest remnants known to science, with a temperature of 216,000 degrees Fahrenheit (120,000 degrees Celsius). It appears as a pinprick of light at the center of the colorful nebula.
The Little Dumbbell Nebula was created when a red giant star collapsed into a dense white dwarf star and ejected an expanding shell of gas and dust into space. The shell is glowing due to ultraviolet radiation from the star’s core and is responsible for its colorful appearance. Red denotes nitrogen and blue shows oxygen while green represents oxygen-rich regions surrounding nitrogen-poor regions in which most elements are produced during stellar nucleosynthesis.
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has provided scientists with valuable data about this fascinating object. Despite its name, it continues to be an important resource for astronomers studying planetary nebulas around our galaxy.
+ There are no comments
Add yours