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Rare nebula 46 EP

Eight-Burst Nebula

RA 151.7572° · Dec -40.4366° · openngc

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
46 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Planetary nebula (a dying star's shell) +12
  • Its dying star is still visible +12
  • Nebula +8
  • Has a proper name +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
Total score 46

4 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Nebula · +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Has a proper name · +8
  • Planetary nebula (a dying star's shell) · +12
  • Its dying star is still visible · +12

Trivia

What it actually is

  • What it actually is. A planetary nebula: the shed outer atmosphere of a dying Sun-like star, lit from within by the naked stellar core left behind.

Sense of scale

  • In perspective. Far away by human standards, yet still a local address inside the Milky Way's spiral arms.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 9.2 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Vela.
  • Southern sky. It rides the southern half of the sky — an easier target the further south you are.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around February — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 49.6 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 4.4 million years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

central star mag
10.07
constellation
Vel
dist ly
2819.7112
dso type
PN
mag
9.2
name
Eight-Burst Nebula
named
yes
radial velocity kms
49
redshift
0.0002
size arcmin
0.5

About Eight-Burst Nebula

Eight-Burst Nebula is a rare nebula. It lies about 2,819.7 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Vel and shines at apparent magnitude 9.2.

A planetary nebula: the shed outer atmosphere of a dying Sun-like star, lit from within by the naked stellar core left behind.

How to see it

Look for Eight-Burst Nebula in the constellation Vel. At apparent magnitude 9.2, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, Eight-Burst Nebula is best seen from a dark site away from city lights, and when it is above the horizon depends on your latitude and the time of year. The visibility panel above works out tonight's viewing window for your saved location.

Why Eight-Burst Nebula is a rare nebula

Eight-Burst Nebula scores 46 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 4 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Nebula, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Has a proper name, Planetary nebula (a dying star's shell) and Its dying star is still visible — each earned for a real, measurable property of the object. Rarity on Spacedle is never random: the more remarkable an object's astrophysics, the more badges it collects, the higher it scores, and the rarer it ranks.