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Credit & Copyright: Tony and Daphne Hallas
Explanation:
This gorgeous
celestial vista is centered on one of the Milky Way's own
planetary
nebulae, M57, the famous
Ring Nebula.
The wide view is a composite of three exposures; one
to record the details of the inner roughly one
light-year span of the familiar nebula,
one to record the surprisingly intricate but
faint outer rings of
glowing hydrogen gas, and
one to pick up the rich assortment of distant background galaxies.
By chance, one of the background galaxies,
IC 1296 at the upper left, is close
enough to show its barred, spiral structure making an attractive
visual comparison with M57.
Interestingly, though IC 1296 is 200 million light-years away
compared to only 2 thousand light-years for M57,
a faint ring is also apparent around the outer reaches
of the distant spiral galaxy.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: Ring Nebula - spiral galaxy
Publications with words: Ring Nebula - spiral galaxy
See also:
- Webb and Hubble: IC 5332
- APOD: 2026 February 4 Á Spiral Galaxy NGC 1512: Wide Field
- Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 1365 from Webb
- APOD: 2026 January 14 Á M51: The Whirlpool Galaxy
- IC 342: Hidden Galaxy in Camelopardalis
- NGC 253: Dusty Island Universe
- APOD: 2025 November 5 Á Spiral Galaxy NGC 3370 from Hubble