Messier 27 (M27) – The Dumbbell Nebula

Messier 27 (M27) is a planetary nebula approximately 1,200 light years away in the Vulpecula constellation. Age ranges for this object vary dramatically—from 3,000 years to 48,000 years old.

The name “planetary nebula” is a misnomer. Planetary nebulas have nothing to do with planets. Astronomers in the 18th century thought these objects were planets, but now we know differently. When a star with 80% to 800% of the sun’s mass begins to run out of hydrogen fuel, it starts fusing helium into heavier elements such as carbon and oxygen. As it does this, the additional energy from those stepped-up levels of fusion cause it to expel its outer layers.

Ultimately, the star expels all its outer layers from its core, leaving the core exposed in sort of a cosmic burp. Once all the helium is burned up, fusion ceases in the core and what is left is a giant, dense ball of carbon (about the size of the earth, but with the mass of the sun)—a diamond in the sky called a “white dwarf.” That core no longer produces new energy, but it’s still extremely hot and gives off copious amounts of radiation, ionizing the gas it expelled earlier. That cloud of gas then eventually dissipates. But before it does, the ionized gas gives off light we can record here on earth with our cameras (if the star is close enough to us).

This image combines true-color broadband imaging with narrowband imaging. The broadband imaging is primarily responsible for exposing the gray and brown dusty material around the nebula.

I’ve taken a much closer image of the core region of this nebula and gone into much more depth about both the nebula, and also its relationship to our own solar system here.