Celestial Dumbbell
Celestial Dumbbell
Photograph by Andre van der Hoeven, Your Shot
The Dumbbell nebula, a favorite target for generations of backyard telescopes, appears in this image released July 13 with a ghostly outer halo or shell.
Located 1,360 light-years away from Earth in the northern Vulpecula constellation, this colorful bubble of gas and dust is all that remains of a dying sunlike star.
The many shells of hot gas puffed away from the outer atmosphere of the star stretches across 4.5 light-years—wide enough to fill the space between our solar system and the nearest star.
