ExploraTour: A Peek into the Lives of the Stars
The Dumbbell Nebula
The Dumbbell Nebula is a beautiful example of a supernova remnant. One of the brightest nebula as seen from Earth, it is 900 light years away in the constellation Sagitta. The entire nebula is 2 light years across. The expanding gas shell that you see was blown off the star at the center some 10,000 years ago. This is about the time that prehistoric people were learning to grow food and raise animals on early farms on Earth.