M97: The Owl Nebula . ... Credit Copyright: Keith Quattrocchi Explanation: The Owl Nebula is perched in the sky about 2,600 light-years away toward the bottom of the Big Dipper's bowl. ... One of the fainter objects in Messier's catalog , the Owl Nebula is a planetary nebula , the glowing gaseous envelope shed by a dying sun-like star as it runs out of nuclear fuel . In fact, the Owl Nebula offers an example of the fate of our Sun as it runs out of fuel in another 5 billion years. ...