Astr111 Photography Projects, Fall 2005

Little Dumbbell M-76, Brian Groenewal

Little Dumbbell is the name of this planetary nebula. However, it sometimes is referred to as Cork, Butterfly, or Barbell Nebula. Herschel the discoverer of this nebula believes that it is a unresolved double nebula. Its magnitude is fainter than 12 and is one of the the faintest of the Messier objects discovered. The temperature of the solar mass from 100,000K-170,000K and its mass ranges from 0.6-0.9.

Little Dumbbell is an object that looks as if it could be a double nebula. When looking at it, one would have to ability to visualize a butterfly, with no tail or head. The clouds around it are the wings and the bright stars in the middle of it are the body. The colors that can be seen are white and red. It is a beautiful nebula. The angular size of Little Dumbbell is 173.8 seconds. The nebula is caused because the star sheds its outer layer of gases. The green we see in the nebula glows because of the oxygen around the star and its heat. The red that we see glowing around the star is from hyrogen beinging heated by the star.

References:
www.seds.org

www.images.google.com