Pete's Favourite Things

Some filtered shots from the Harvard NASA telescope showing the Red hues at the outside of the ring and the Green and Blue hues in the central part of the Nebula.

A copy of a Hubble telescope image of the Ring Nebula

Photo by Hubble Heritage (http://www.flickr.com/photos/hubble-heritage/)

The Ring nebula (aka Messier 57 or NGC6720) is a planetary nebula found in the constellation Lyra. It is caused by a shell of ionised gas, which has been expelled from a red giant star in the process of turning into a white dwarf. The inner ring gives a blue-green hue, whilst the outer rings give a reddish hue, something which can just be seen in the close-up photos. The nebula is 2300 light years from Earth and measurements have shown that the gas ring is expanding all way from the central star.

Some great photographs of the Ring Nebula taken by the Hubble telescope can be seen at
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/science/ring-nebula.html

These photos were taken using the Harvard NASA telescope