The Medusa Nebula is a large planetary nebula

Planetary nebula

A planetary nebula is an emission nebula consisting of an expanding glowing shell of ionized gas ejected during the asymptotic giant branch phase of certain types of stars late in their life...

 in the constellation of Gemini

Gemini (constellation)

Gemini is one of the constellations of the zodiac. It was one of the 48 constellations described by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy and it remains one of the 88 modern constellations today. Its name is Latin for "twins", and it is associated with the twins Castor and Pollux in Greek mythology...

 on the Canis Minor

Canis Minor

Canis Minor is a small constellation. It was included in the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy's 48 constellations, and is still included among the 88 modern constellations...

 border. It also known as Abell

Abell catalogue

The Abell catalog of rich clusters of galaxies is an all-sky catalog of 4,073 rich galaxy clusters of nominal redshift z 18.0*Galactic-Latitude: Areas of the sky in the neighbourhood of the Milky Way were excluded from the study because the density of stars in those fields—not to mention...

 21 and Sharpless

Sharpless catalog

The Sharpless catalog is a list of 312 HII regions , intended to be comprehensive north of declination -27°. The first edition was publishing 1953 with 142 objects and second and final version was published by US astronomer Stewart Sharpless in 1959 with 312 objects.In 1953 Stewart Sharpless joined...

 274. It was originally discovered in 1955 by UCLA

University of California, Los Angeles

The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...

 astronomer George O. Abell, who classified it as an old planetary nebula. The braided serpentine filaments of glowing gas suggests the serpent hair of Medusa

Medusa

In Greek mythology Medusa , " guardian, protectress") was a Gorgon, a chthonic monster, and a daughter of Phorcys and Ceto. The author Hyginus, interposes a generation and gives Medusa another chthonic pair as parents. Gazing directly upon her would turn onlookers to stone...

 found in ancient Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

.

Until the early 1970s, the Medusa was thought to be a supernova remnant. With the computation of expansion velocities and the thermal character of the radio emission, Soviet astronomers in 1971 concluded that it was most likely a planetary nebula.

As the nebula is so big, its surface brightness is very low, with surface magnitudes of between +15.99 and +25 reported. Because of this most websites recommend at least an 8 inches (203.2 mm) telescope with an [O III] filter to find this object although probably possible to image with smaller apertures.

External links

• The Sharpless Catalog: Sharpless 274
• APOD
  Astronomy Picture of the Day
  Astronomy Picture of the Day is a website provided by NASA and Michigan Technological University . According to the website, "Each day a different image or photograph of our universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer."The photograph is not necessarily...
  
  picture: The Medusa Nebula
• Images of the Universe: PK 205+14.1 The Medusa Nebula in Gemini