Nebulas

Ring Nebula or Lyre Nebula or M57

Lyre nebula or M57 is among objects the most known for the catalog Messier. It was discovered in 1779 by Antoine Darquier de Pellepoix. It is an annular nebula which looks like the nebula Helix a lot. The real diameter of the ring is 1,3 al, is about a visible diameter 2 min of bow. The visible ring consists of oxygen and nitrogen ionized. The outside edge of the ring consists as for him of hydrogen. The dark part inside the ring is made by helium, and emits in the ultraviolet ray. M57 is often named Misty of the Ring, Nebula of the Lyre or simply The Lyre, the name that she pulls of her constellation host. A global nebula is a fine disk, in the irregular forms and in the luxurious colors. We so called up them, because seen in a small instrument, in the debuts of the observations, they appeared as weak planets. They appear as a nebula of small angular dimensions, often very symmetric circular shape and bounded well, by opposition at the diffuse nebulas which seem to dilute in the space and of irregular shape.
Numerous global nebulas have a shape of ring, as the ring of the Lyre, opposite. They show a density of matter stronger in suburb than inside.

A star is always in the center. At the end of life, when they exhausted their hydrogen, stars see their peripheral layers dilating and cooling, whereas the heart collapses and warms up to reach the melting point of the helium. Certain stars go as far as ejecting their peripheral layers creating an expanding cocoon. The heart put in nude is a star of type W or O which shines a lot of ultraviolet light and which incites the nebula.

Image: In this composite image, visible-light observations by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope are combined with infrared data from the ground-based Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona to assemble a dramatic view of the well-known Ring Nebula. Credit: NASA, ESA, C.R. Robert O’Dell (Vanderbilt University), G.J. Ferland (University of Kentucky), W.J. Henney and M. Peimbert (National Autonomous University of Mexico) Credit for Large Binocular Telescope data: David Thompson (University of Arizona).

Dumbbell Nebula or M27

In 1764, the French astronomer Charles Messier described this magnificent cloud cosmic as an oval nebula without star.
Cataloged under the name of M 27, it is now known under the name Dumbbell Nebula ("barbell" in English) because of its lengthened shape, what the eyes of Messier had noticed.
This deep image of brilliant misty global reveal the central star of Dumbbell and a network of stars of front and back plan in the pinkish constellation of the Fox (Vulpecula in Latin).
The dissimilar image adds up 8 hours of pose through a filter intended to record only the light resulting from atoms of hydrogen, drawing the structure of the weak outside halo of the nebula which extends over light years. The Dumbbell Nebula, is a nebula similar to the fact that will happen our Sun when it will have exhausted its nuclear fuel.

The central star (at the origin of the nebula) has a visible magnitude of 13,5, what makes it with difficulty observable for an amateur astronomer.
It is a dwarf white with very warm blue color (85 000K). It is accompanied with another stud, even weaker (magnitude 17).

Image: Dumbell Nebula planetary or M57

Cone Nebula or NGC 2264

The Cone Nebula and the Christmas tree looks like a creature of nightmare, in a red sea, but in reality a mass of gas and dust located 2 500 light-years away in the constellation the Unicorn. Nebula NGC 2264, a conical shape, is a finger of dark matter points to a group of stars. We see in this picture the visible part of a huge cloud of interstellar dense and opaque, composed of dust and hydrogen. This nebula has the distinction of being a variable brightness, due to the star that illuminates the cloud and which varies irregularly. Red emission nebula surrounding the gas is due to ionized hydrogen gas surrounding the stars.
This monstrous pillar resides in a region of star formation. This photo, taken by the camera of the Hubble Space Telescope, shows a cone of 2.5 light-years. The pillar has a full size of seven light-years.
Radiation from hot young stars (upper of the image) slowly eroding the top of the nebula. Ultraviolet light heats the edges of the dark cloud, releasing gas in the region, relatively empty, the surrounding space.

Ultraviolet rays are shining hydrogen gas, which produces the red halo of light around the pillar and the arch that is seen near the low upper left side of the cone. This small arc, however, 65 times larger than our solar system. Blue and white light of nearby stars is reflected by dust. Within these regions of dark dust, stars and planets in formation.
Over time, only the densest regions of the cone will resist erosion of the ultraviolet radiation of young massive stars. Astronomers believe that these pillars are incubators of stars. Camera ACS made this observation, April 2, 2002. The color image is constructed from three separate images taken in blue, near infrared and hydrogen-alpha.

Image: Cone Nebula in the constellation of the Unicorn. Image taken by Hubble in April 2002. NASA, H. Ford (JHU), G. Illingworth (UCSC/LO), M. Clampin (STScI), G. Hartig (STScI), the ACS Science Team and ESA.

Orion Nebula or M42 or NGC 1976

The Orion nebula presents to the telescope one of the most beautiful spectacles of the sky. In the heart of the nebula, four blue stars, forming a trapeze, illuminate a great distance away the matter scattered in the space.
Atoms absorb the stellar light and re-emit it according to their appropriate colors, those some oxygen that is in the green, the hydrogen and the nitrogen in the red. The observations radio astronomical reveal us that the Orion nebula is only a tiny part of the big opaque cloud of Orion.
Of the contraction of this cloud were born the stars of the Trapeze, as well as a group of primal stellar nebulas was situated behind the nebula of Orion.
The Orion nebula was discovered in 1610 by Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc who was apparently the first one to notice his misty aspect although Ptolemy, Tycho Brahe and Johann Bayer identified the stars of his center as an only big star and Galilee had detected certain number of small stars when he observed this region with his astronomical telescope.

Image: The Orion nebula, so known under the name of M42 and NGC1976, is a nebula in broadcast / reflection of green color situated in the heart of the Orion constellation.

nebulas M42, M43 et NGC 1977

In the famous Orion Nebula M42, there is also the nebula NGC 1977 in blue on the image next to M42 in red, the color of hydrogen. In NGC 1977 there are also 2 small nebula NGC 1973 and NGC 1975 barely visible on the image. The blue stars to the left of the image are in the nebula NGC 1981. The small nebula M43 at the bottom left of M42 in red too. The big blue dot shining below the Great Red Spot, right of the image is the nebula NGC 1980
These nebulae are only a small part of the richness of interstellar objects in the region of Orion.
The Orion nebula is located at a distance of 1 500 light years from Earth. The width of that heavenly view represents about 45 light years away

Image: This image shows a set of beautiful nebulae in the region of Orion, NGC 1976 or M42, M43 or NGC 1982, NGC 1977, NGC 1980, NGC 1973, NGC 1975, NGC 1981.
credit & Copyright: Tony Hallas