Comet Enthusiast

Looking like an image out of Will Wright's video game, Spore, M 27, or NGC 6853 is a planetary nebula in the constellation Vulpecula, at a distance of about 1,360 light years. Its central star, a white dwarf, is larger than any other known white dwarf in the universe. Also known by the absurd name, the Dumbbell, it contains knots marked by a central region of dark and bright cusped knots and their associated dark tails. The knots vary in appearance from symmetric objects with tails to rather irregular tail-less objects. Similarly to the Helix Nebula and the Eskimo Nebula, the heads of the knots have bright cusps which are local.