Ring Nebula size and scale context

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. Read its scale context, comparisons, and journey links on the canonical object page.

Scroll up for smaller

Scroll down for larger

Between the smallest and the largest, perspective is everything.

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 turn parts of that scale into curated essays, while focused views let you explore the same range through specific groups of objects.

Editorial

Solar System Planets From Electron to Atoms Stars To Scale Birth And Death Of Stars Black Holes To Scale

Views

Planets of the Solar System Stars of the Universe Black holes Subatomic scale

Return to Earth hello@scaleofspace.org

Between the smallest and the largest, perspective is everything.

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 turn parts of that scale into curated essays, while focused views let you explore the same range through specific groups of objects.

Editorial

Solar System Planets From Electron to Atoms Stars To Scale Birth And Death Of Stars Black Holes To Scale

Views

Planets of the Solar System Stars of the Universe Black holes Subatomic scale

Return to Earth hello@scaleofspace.org

Galaxies

Milky Way

The Milky Way is the barred spiral galaxy that contains the Solar System. One circuit of our system around the galaxy takes about 230 million years, so Earth has completed only about twenty galactic years since it formed.

Scale fact100,000 lystellar disk diameter

Object class: Barred spiral galaxy
Composition: ~100–400 billion stars, gas, dust, dark matter
Estimated age: ~13.6 billion years
Host: Local Group

Galaxies

Andromeda Galaxy

Andromeda is the nearest large spiral galaxy to the Milky Way and the biggest heavyweight in our immediate neighborhood. Hubble measurements show it is already falling toward us, setting up a galaxy collision that should begin in about 4 billion years.

Scale fact152,000 lydiameter

Object class: Barred spiral galaxy
Composition: ~1 trillion stars, gas, dust, dark matter
Estimated age: ~10 billion years
Host: Local Group