NGC 7662 (Blue Snowball)

Jan 7th, 2023

14 m

NGC 7662 is a planetary nebula in the constellation Andromeda. The distance to this nebula is not precisely known. According to the Skalnate Pleso Catalogue (1951), the distance to NGC 7662 is approximately 1,800 light-years, with a physical size of about 20,000 AU. A later study of bright planetary nebulae (C. R. O’Dell, 1963) derived a distance of 1,740 parsecs, or about 5,600 light-years, and increased the size estimate to 0.8 light-years, or nearly 50,000 AU. The nebula contains a faint central star of variable magnitude, ranging from magnitude 12 to 16. This star is a blue dwarf with a continuous spectrum and an estimated temperature of about 75,000 K, making the core of NGC 7662 one of the hottest known stars.

Dec 11th, 2022

6 m

NGC 7662 is a planetary nebula in the constellation Andromeda. The distance to this nebula is not precisely known. According to the Skalnate Pleso Catalogue (1951), the distance to NGC 7662 is approximately 1,800 light-years, with a physical size of about 20,000 AU. A later study of bright planetary nebulae (C. R. O’Dell, 1963) derived a distance of 1,740 parsecs, or about 5,600 light-years, and increased the size estimate to 0.8 light-years, or nearly 50,000 AU. The nebula contains a faint central star of variable brightness, with a magnitude ranging from 12 to 16. This star is a blue dwarf with a continuous spectrum and an estimated temperature of about 75,000 K, placing the core of NGC 7662 among the hottest known stars.