◈ Ring Nebula

  Ring Nebula is a planetary nebula in Lyra.

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  Type            Planetary nebula
  Constellation   Lyra
  Magnitude       9.5
  Apparent size   1.4′ × 1′
  You need        a small telescope

  Known as
  Messier         M57
  Dreyer          NGC 6720

  Physical
  Distance        2,570 light years
  Age             roughly 7,000 years since the star shed it

  More information about Ring Nebula

  When a star about the size of the Sun runs out of fuel it swells up and
  then sheds its outer layers into space, leaving its exposed core behind.
  The Ring Nebula is one of those shed shells, seen from a direction that
  makes it look like a smoke ring, and it is lit from inside by the small
  hot core at its centre. It is only about one arcminute across, roughly a
  thirtieth of the width of the full Moon, so what it needs is
  magnification rather than a large telescope. This is approximately what
  the Sun will do in five billion years.

  History
  Discovered   1779, Antoine Darquier de Pellepoix

  Messier was hunting comets. He compiled his list between 1758 and 1781
  as a register of things that look like comets but are not. That's why
  the objects on it have nothing in common beyond being fuzzy and staying
  put.

  Dreyer compiled the New General Catalogue in 1888, mostly from the
  sweeps William and John Herschel made of the sky, and numbered its 7,840
  objects in order of right ascension.

  where it is tonight:  skymap.sh/Ring Nebula