Celestial Objects
Owl Nebula
Nebulae
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The Owl Nebula, catalogued as Messier 97, is a planetary nebula about 2,030 light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major, formed roughly 8,000 years ago from material shed by the stellar wind of its central star as it evolved along the asymptotic giant branch. It is arranged in three concentric shells, with the outer shell about 20 to 30 percent larger than the inner one, and its owl-like appearance comes from an inner shell shaped like a barrel tilted at about 45 degrees to our line of sight.
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