Hourglass Nebula (MyCn 18)

Hourglass Nebula (MyCn 18) — nebula, explore its interactive 3D model in Cosmoscope.

Explore Hourglass Nebula (MyCn 18) in an interactive 3D view of space. Inspect its astronomical data and the observations or reconstructions behind the model.

Two lobes of expelled gas form the Etched Hourglass around a dying star and its companion. This freely released Celestia model was built by LukeCEL using Vincent Icke’s nebula simulations. Its original three-dimensional gas particles supply this volume; it is a representative reconstruction, not a measured scan of every filament.

Type

Bipolar planetary nebula

Distance

About 10,100 light-years; uncertain

Structure

Expelled gas surrounding a binary central star

3D model

LukeCEL · public domain · based on Vincent Icke’s simulations

Appearance

Source gas particles rendered as continuous 3D emission

Accuracy

Representative density, assigned colours and approximate size/orientation

Explore Hourglass Nebula (MyCn 18) in 3D

Hourglass Nebula (MyCn 18) is placed in three-dimensional space using catalogue coordinates and an adopted astronomical distance. Rotate and zoom to explore the model. Stellar surfaces, gas structure and dust depths may be reconstructed or illustrative, as described in its facts; this is not live imagery from a telescope.