NGC 6884 is a planetary nebula located in the constellation Cygnus, less than a degree to the southwest of the star Ο1 Cygni. It lies at a distance of approximately 12.5 kly from the Sun. The nebula was discovered on May 8, 1883, by American astronomer Edward C. Pickering.
This nebula consists of the cast-off outer atmosphere of an aging star. It is young and compact with a kinematic age of 720 years. The nebula is point-symmetric with arcs forming an S-shaped inner core; the shape is likely explained by bipolar outflows with a velocity of 55 km/s. The core is surrounded by a filamentary ring structure that is inclined at an angle of around 40–45° to the line of sight from the Earth. The core has an overall shape of a prolate ellipsoid with axis ratios of 1.6:1 and is inclined by 40°. The expansion velocity of the nebula ranges over 19–25 km/s. The central star has a temperature of ~100,000 K and a class of WN b?.
References
External links
- Media related to NGC 6884 at Wikimedia Commons
