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.

                               2019 December 3

                          M27: The Dumbbell Nebula
                   Image Credit & Copyright: Steve Mazlin

   Explanation: Is this what will become of our Sun? Quite possibly. 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, the type of
   nebula our Sun will produce when nuclear fusion stops in its core. M27
   is one of the brightest planetary nebulae on the sky, and can be seen
   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. Understanding the physics and
   significance of M27 was well beyond 18th century science. Even today,
   many things remain mysterious about bipolar planetary nebula like M27,
   including the physical mechanism that expels a low-mass star's gaseous
   outer-envelope, leaving an X-ray hot white dwarf.

      APOD across world languages: Arabic, Catalan, Chinese (Beijing),
          Chinese (Taiwan), Croatian, Czech, Dutch, Farsi, French,
     French, German, Hebrew, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Montenegrin,
         Polish, Russian, Serbian, Slovenian, Spanish and Ukrainian
                     Tomorrow's picture: electric night
     __________________________________________________________________

       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
                NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0