Dumbbell Nebula

The Dumbbell Nebula is a bright planetary nebula in Vulpecula, cataloged as Messier 27. Its glowing gas was expelled by a dying star.

Planetary nebula: An expanding shell of gas ionized by a hot stellar remnant near the end of a low- or intermediate-mass star’s life. Messier 27 is a nearby, bright example of this class of stellar remnant.
Messier object: An astronomical object listed in Charles Messier’s catalog of nebulae and star clusters. M27 is the designation by which the Dumbbell Nebula is widely known.
Hubble Space Telescope: A space observatory launched in 1990 that observes ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared light. Its detailed images resolve structures in the nebula’s ionized gas.
Charles Messier: A French astronomer who compiled an eighteenth-century catalog of nebulae and star clusters. He recorded the Dumbbell Nebula as the twenty-seventh object in his catalog.
Photoionization: The process in which photons remove electrons from atoms or molecules. Ultraviolet radiation from the central star ionizes the nebula’s gas, producing its emission.
Vulpecula: A small northern constellation introduced by Johannes Hevelius in the seventeenth century. The Dumbbell Nebula lies in this constellation.
James Webb Space Telescope: A space observatory designed primarily for infrared astronomy, launched in 2021. Infrared observations can reveal cooler material in and around the Dumbbell Nebula.
Dumbbell Nebula discovery: Charles Messier’s 1764 observation of the nebula now known as Messier 27. The observation established the object’s place in the Messier catalog.
Emission nebula: A cloud of ionized gas that emits light after absorbing energy, usually from nearby stars. Its glowing gas makes Messier 27 a prominent example of this broader nebular category.
Planetary nebula luminosity function: A statistical distribution of planetary nebula brightnesses used to estimate distances to galaxies. The Dumbbell Nebula is one object within the population described by this distribution.

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Ring NebulaCompared with: Its two-lobed appearance contrasts with the Ring Nebula's roughly annular view.