Key facts
- Category
- Nebulae
- Object class
- Planetary nebula
- Host
- Milky Way
- Scale fact
- 2.6 lydiameter
- Composition
- Ionized gas and stellar ejecta
Ring Nebula
2.6 lydiameter
Visual creditHubble 2013 / NASA, ESA, and C. Robert O’Dell (Vanderbilt University) / Public domainSource: Wikimedia Commons
Details
The Ring Nebula is a planetary nebula in Lyra, a glowing shell left behind when a dying Sun-like star shed its outer layers. Hubble reveals a distorted doughnut of ionized gas with lower-density material threaded through the center.
The Ring Nebula formed when an aging, low-mass star expelled its outer layers and exposed a hot core that ionizes the surrounding gas. The bright ellipse seen from Earth is a projection of a three-dimensional structure, not a flat ring.
Models based on Hubble and ground-based observations describe a distorted, doughnut-like central region with lower-density material extending through it. Knots and fainter outer gas make the measured diameter depend on which emission boundary is selected.
Links
- Editorial guides
- Universe journey
- Orion Arm
- Preset views
- Wikipedia
- Ring Nebula on Wikipedia
Size neighbors
Objects near Ring Nebula on the scale
On the logarithmic size axis, Ring Nebula falls between Homunculus Nebula and Oort Cloud. The band uses nearby Planetary nebula records.
Shared physical scale
4.28ly
Sources
References for Ring Nebula
Measurements and descriptive context are compiled by the Scale of Space team from the references below. If you find an error, please let us know.
- Ring Nebula — Wikipedia
- Visual reference: Wikimedia Commons (Hubble 2013 / NASA, ESA, and C. Robert O’Dell (Vanderbilt University), Public domain)
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About
Scale of Space is a scroll-based journey through the universe, placing objects on a single logarithmic scale so you can compare size across an unbroken range.
Guides explain selected parts of that range, while focused views filter the objects by subject.