M 57 (Ring Nebula)

Author(s): Trolligi Lux H.M.T.

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The Ring Nebula (also catalogued as Messier 57, and NGC 6720) is a planetary nebula in the mildly northern constellation of Lyra around 2,567±115 light-years away. Such a nebula is formed when a star, during the last stages of its evolution before becoming a white dwarf, expels a vast luminous envelope of ionized gas into the surrounding interstellar space.

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