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M27
Messier 27
NGC 6853
Dumbbell Nebula
Apple Core Nebula
Planetary Nebula
| Right Ascension | 19h 59m 36s | Best Seen | 7/1-11/15 |
| Declination | 22° 43' 02" | Magnitude | 7.4 |
| Constellation | Vulpecula | ||
Actual |
Compared to ... |
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| Distance | ~1,000 ly | -- |
| Diameter | ~1.5 ly | -- |
| Actual Brightness of central star | -- | 1/3 (Sun) |
| Magnitude of central star | 13.5 | |
| Spectral Type of central star | -- | G2 V (Sun) |
| Surface Temperature of star | 85,000 °K | -- |
| Age | 3,000 - 4,000 years | |
| Density (gram/cubic cm) | -- | -- |
What To Look For Through The Telescope
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Recommended eyepiece: 26mm or 40 mm.
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This object will look like a whitish, hazy cloud when seen through the telescope..
M27 "Dumbbell Nebula" Information
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Planetary Nebulae are the remains of a sun-like star that has used all of its hydrogen gas (fuel). The Sun will become an object like this in 5 to 6 billion years. The glowing gases were once thought to be planets in the process of forming, hence the name “planetary nebula”.
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Planetary nebulae are formed by medium or low-mass stars (like our Sun). When they exhaust their hydrogen supply, they become red giant stars. Their internal nature then becomes unstable and causes their outer atmospheres to be expelled in energetic pulses. The escaping gasses form the nebula, leaving behind a super hot white dwarf star that illuminates the gaseous cloud with UV radiation. For the Dumbbell Nebula, this happened between 3,000 and 15,000 years ago.
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The nebula is expanding at 17 miles per second.
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The central star, a white dwarf, is a very faint magnitude 13.5, barely visible even with large telescopes, and surrounded by a slightly darker area. It is about 1/3 the luminosity of our Sun, contains about 60% of the Sun’s mass, and is about 5% of the Sun’s diameter. It is one of the largest white dwarf stars known and has a surface temperature of > 150,000 °F (85,000 °K) -- about 14 times hotter than our Sun making it one of the hottest stars known.
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This central star has an even fainter yellow companion star (mag 17).
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The nebula is likely cylindrical. If you looked at it down one of the ends, it would probably appear circular like the Ring Nebula.
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The inner region appears to have knots. The brighter heads are due to photoionization fronts. The darker areas are emitting mostly UV radiation, not visible light.
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It is expanding at 20 miles/sec.
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Discovered on July 12, 1764 by Charles Messier, the Dumbbell Nebula was the first planetary nebula ever discovered. He described it as an oval nebula without stars.
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The name “dumbbell” came from William Herschel’s son, John, who compared it to a “double-headed shot.”
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References
| Item | Updated | Notes |
| Coordinates | 2002-09-23 | tweaked a bit |
| Distance | 2002-09-25 | previous: 900 ly... found new at SEDS site http://messier.seds.org/m/m027.html |
| Diameter | 2002-09-25 | previous: 2.5 ly... found info at http://www.noao.edu/image_gallery/html/im0054.html |
| Actual Brightness | 2002-09-25 | previous: 0.5 (sun) – BUT new info from SEDS |
| Magnitude Central Star | 2002-09-25 | OK with SEDS site |
| Surface Temp Cent. Star | 2002-09-25 | OK with SEDS site |
| Age | 2002-09-25 | OK with SEDS site |
| Other Information | 2002-09-25 | 1. Previously had info: “This planetary’s age of 48,000 years makes it about 2.5 times older than the average age (20,000 years) of typical bright planetary nebulae.” – BUT all found info says age only 3-4000 years 2. Previously, had info: “The central star may be a double star with a separation of 1.6 trillion miles (.28 light years or 18,000 times the Earth-sun distance).” – BUT can only find that “it probably has a faint (mag 27) yellow companion at 6.5" in position angle214 deg (Burnham).” on the SEDS site 3. Info Item 3: SEDS site |