M 57 ?

[GrahamL]

TIA.. why does the view of this object appear two dimensional
by that I mean (it appears ?) there isn't a bright cloud of gas faceing us .
hmm ..maybe it looks the same from whichever way you look at it ?

[CoombellKid]

There are two thoughts on this that I have heard. One is like you say it may
appear the same from any direction you look at it. The thought being that
the ring look comes from there being a greater concenstration of matter
towards to edges (from our perspective or line of sight) as you are looking
though more matter.

The other one I have heard is that the Ring Neb turn sideways might look
like the Bug Neb which appears to have cone shaped extentions.

I guess unless we can actually go have a look then we'll really never know

Rob

[Doug]

I think you might be commenting on a thing that I often muse over.
M57 is supposed to be a sphere of gas. But we see it as a cross section. Why is the center free of gasious nebulosity? It appears as a hollow sphere, cut in half!
A boiled egg sliced up; ok guys come clean , who took the yolk out?
Hope I have not missed your point.
cheers,
Doug

[Doug]

It must have taken me 5 mins to type that other post. maybe if I learn to type with two fingers instead of one?
The star that shed material may also have been spinning rapidly and what we are seeing could be an equatorial bulge gone to extremes; ie. a disk of material rather than a sphere.
cheers,
Doug

[GrahamL]

That sounds close rob,its there but not as much of it :)

[ving]

you have got to be yolking! :lol:
sorry:ashamed:

i have ofter wondered what these objects look like from another angle tho...