Planetary Nebula M76, picture of November of the Observatori Asrtronòmic del Montsec [NOT TRANSLATED]
2016-11-30 00:00:00
Each month the Observatori Astronòmic del Montsec (OAdM) of IEEC publishes an outstanding image from the observations made there. In november, the protagonist of the image of the month is the Planetary Nebula M76.
novembre
M76 is one of the weakest objects in the well-known Messier’s list. It is a planetary nebula. A large gas structure that was the former envelope of a star, already dead, similar to the Sun. Scientists believe that this nebula has a donut-like shape, which we see in profile, shaped by the Gases that expand at high speed.
The image, made with the Joan Oró Telescope of the Montsec Astronomical Observatory using various broadband filters, clearly shows the emission of the hydrogen atoms in red, and the oxygen in blue and green shades. It even gets to distinguish between the core of the old star, now in the white dwarf phase. [NOT TRANSLATED]