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Planetary nebula

NGC 6567

Planetary nebula

A shell of gas thrown off by a dying Sun-like star, glowing in the ultraviolet light of the hot core at its centre. Within a few tens of thousands of years it will disperse and fade from view.

TypePlanetary nebula
ConstellationSagittarius
Distance1,500 pc (4.9 thousand ly)
Diameter0.2 ly
Central starV 14.4 · WC
Expansion speed18 km/s
PN G namePN G011.7-00.6
SourceStrasbourg–ESO PN Catalogue
Right ascension (J2000)18h 13m 45.1s
Declination (J2000)−19° 04′ 19″

In the sky

Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 71° N. South of latitude 71° S it never sets. It stands highest at midnight in June, the best time to observe it.

Through a telescope from Earth

Light's journey

The light you see tonight set out 4,892 years ago. At that time the first farming villages were being founded; there was no writing yet. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 87 million years.

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