                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                2021 July 12

                          M27: The Dumbbell Nebula
          Image Credit & Copyright: Bray Falls & Keith Quattrocchi

   Explanation: What will become of our Sun? The first hint of our Sun's
   future was discovered inadvertently in 1764. At that time, Charles
   Messier was compiling a list of diffuse objects not to be confused with
   comets. The 27th object on Messier's list, now known as M27 or the
   Dumbbell Nebula, is a planetary nebula, one of the brightest planetary
   nebulae on the sky -- and visible toward the constellation of the Fox
   (Vulpecula) with binoculars. It takes light about 1000 years to reach
   us from M27, featured here in colors emitted by hydrogen and oxygen. We
   now know that in about 6 billion years, our Sun will shed its outer
   gases into a planetary nebula like M27, while its remaining center will
   become an X-ray hot white dwarf star. Understanding the physics and
   significance of M27 was well beyond 18th century science, though. Even
   today, many things remain mysterious about planetary nebulas, including
   how their intricate shapes are created.

                       Tomorrow's picture: Iapetus 3D
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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