Messier 97 and 108 in Ursa Major in Detail
These two Messier objects lie quite close together, see previous image for a full frame view.
M97. The Owl planetary nebula is about 3.7 arcminutes across in our sky but is actually 0.91 light years in diameter. It lies about 2600 light years distant. The central star has shed its outer layers which glow either red (hydrogen) or green-blue (oxygen) lit by the intense UV light of the remnant white dwarf star in the centre. Eventually, the star will cool and the gas will expand until the nebula fades away. It estimated that the nebula is about 6000 years old based on its size and expansion rate. Our own Sun may eventually suffer a similar fate.
A gravitational effect has formed a constrained tube of gas near the star before it expands into a sphere. We are looking down at about 45 degrees to the axis of the tube, these effects produce an "owl face" from our perspective.
Barred spiral galaxy M108 is about 45 million light years away and is almost edge on from our perspective. It’s 8.7 x 2.2 arcminutes diameter in our sky. It lacks a prominent core or bulge but has numerous dark dust lanes. It’s possible to see
a small yellow core at its centre (yellow or red stars tend to be old and mature) brownish dust lanes, pink hydrogen alpha zones and two bright blue "stellar associations” of young intensely bright stars at this magnification.
A Type II supernovae was observed here in 1969.
Technical card on previous full frame image.
Messier 97 and 108 in Ursa Major in Detail
These two Messier objects lie quite close together, see previous image for a full frame view.
M97. The Owl planetary nebula is about 3.7 arcminutes across in our sky but is actually 0.91 light years in diameter. It lies about 2600 light years distant. The central star has shed its outer layers which glow either red (hydrogen) or green-blue (oxygen) lit by the intense UV light of the remnant white dwarf star in the centre. Eventually, the star will cool and the gas will expand until the nebula fades away. It estimated that the nebula is about 6000 years old based on its size and expansion rate. Our own Sun may eventually suffer a similar fate.
A gravitational effect has formed a constrained tube of gas near the star before it expands into a sphere. We are looking down at about 45 degrees to the axis of the tube, these effects produce an "owl face" from our perspective.
Barred spiral galaxy M108 is about 45 million light years away and is almost edge on from our perspective. It’s 8.7 x 2.2 arcminutes diameter in our sky. It lacks a prominent core or bulge but has numerous dark dust lanes. It’s possible to see
a small yellow core at its centre (yellow or red stars tend to be old and mature) brownish dust lanes, pink hydrogen alpha zones and two bright blue "stellar associations” of young intensely bright stars at this magnification.
A Type II supernovae was observed here in 1969.
Technical card on previous full frame image.