The Owl Nebula: Planetary Nebula M97 in Ursa Major | Gemini North Telescope

The Owl Nebula: Planetary Nebula M97 in Ursa Major | Gemini North Telescope

Gemini North image of the planetary nebula Messier 97 (M97), also known as the Owl Nebula, imaged by the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS). The approximately 6,000 year-old nebula is located about 2,600 light-years away, and has a diameter ofabout three light-years across. It is located in the constellation of Ursa Major (containing the Big Dipper).

Since their discovery in the late 1700s, astronomers have learned that planetary nebulae, or the expanding shell of glowing gas expelled by a low-intermediate mass star late in its life, can come in all shapes and sizes. Most planetary nebulae present as circular, elliptical, or bi-polar, but others can vary from this.

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Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/Émilie Storer (Collège Charlemagne, QUE)/André-Nicolas Chené (HIA/NRCof Canada)/T. Rector (U.Alaska, Anchorage).
Release Date: March 25, 2010

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