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                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                               2025 August 22

                            A Tale of Two Nebulae
                    Image Credit & Copyright: Kent Biggs

   Explanation: This colorful telescopic view towards the musical northern
   constellation Lyra reveals the faint outer halos and brighter central
   ring-shaped region of M57, popularly known as the Ring Nebula. To
   modern astronomers M57 is a well-known planetary nebula. With a central
   ring about one light-year across, M57 is definitely not a planet
   though, but the gaseous shroud of one of the Milky Way's dying sun-like
   stars. Roughly the same apparent size as M57, the fainter and more
   often overlooked barred spiral galaxy at the left is IC 1296. In fact,
   over 100 years ago IC 1296 would have been known as a spiral nebula. By
   chance the pair are in the same field of view, and while they appear to
   have similar sizes they are actually very far apart. At a distance of a
   mere 2,000 light-years M57 is well within our own Milky Way galaxy.
   Extragalactic IC 1296 (aka PGC62532) is more like 200,000,000
   light-years distant. That's about 100,000 times farther away than M57
   but since they appear roughly similar in size, former spiral nebula IC
   1296 must also be about 100,000 times larger than planetary nebula M57.
   Look closely at the sharp 21st century astroimage to spot even more
   distant background galaxies scattered through the frame.

                      Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
     __________________________________________________________________

       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
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                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

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