Anomaly nebula 92 EP

Dumbbell Nebula

RA 299.9016° · Dec 22.7210° · openngc

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Score breakdown

· 9 badges

92 pts · Anomaly

Anomaly 120 pts → Mythic

The Dumbbell Nebula +18
Messier object +12
Planetary nebula (a dying star's shell) +12
Its dying star is still visible +12
Coming towards us +10
Nebula +8
Has a proper name +8
Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
Bright deep-sky object +6

Total score 92

28 more points to reach Mythic.

Badges

Nebula · +8
Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
Messier object · +12
Bright deep-sky object · +6
Has a proper name · +8
Planetary nebula (a dying star's shell) · +12
Coming towards us · +10
Its dying star is still visible · +12
The Dumbbell Nebula · +18

Trivia

Hard to believe

Messier object. One of the 110 showpieces of the Messier list — catalogued as M27.

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 7.4 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Vulpecula.
Northern sky. It rides the northern half of the sky — an easier target the further north you are.
Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around July — 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. ≈ 21.6 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

central star mag: 13.94
constellation: Vul
dist ly: 1227.3039
dso type: PN
mag: 7.4
messier: yes
messier number: 027
name: Dumbbell Nebula
named: yes
radial velocity kms: -42
size arcmin: 6.7

Nearby objects

About Dumbbell Nebula

Dumbbell Nebula is an anomaly nebula. It lies about 1,227.3 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Vul and shines at apparent magnitude 7.4.

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 Dumbbell Nebula in the constellation Vul. At apparent magnitude 7.4, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, Dumbbell 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 Dumbbell Nebula is an anomaly nebula

Dumbbell Nebula scores 92 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the anomaly tier. Another 28 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 9 science badges — Nebula, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Messier object, Bright deep-sky object, Has a proper name, Planetary nebula (a dying star's shell), Coming towards us 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.