NGC 2792

NGC 2792 is a planetary nebula located in the constellation Vela. NGC 2792 was discovered by British astronomer John Herschel in 1835.

Observation
With an apparent visual magnitude of 11.6, you must use a telescope with an aperture of at least 200 mm to observe it.

Distance, size and speed
Two very similar distances are indicated on the SIMBAD database: 3.086 ± 0.617 kpc (~10,100 ly) and approximately 3050 pc (~9,950 ly).

The apparent size of the nebula is 0.350 × 0.315, which, given the distance of 3,086 ± 617 pc and through simple calculation, equates to an actual size of 1.02 ± 0.20 al × 0 .92 ± 0.18 ly.

Two identical speed values are also indicated on SIMBAD, i.e. 14.0 ± 5.0 km/s. According to a more recent publication (2023) the speed of the nebula is 12.7 ± 8 km/s.

Age
The kinematic age of a planetary nebula can be estimated from its expansion speed. According to González-Santamaría and his colleagues, the expansion speed of NGC 2792 is 20 km/s, which gives it a kinematic age of 3.5 thousand years. According to a more recent publication, its expansion speed is 20.2 km/s.

According to González-Santamaría, it has been approximately 50,860 years since the star left the asymptotic giant branch and the nebula enveloping it reached 1% of the mass of the progenitor.

Central star
The visual magnitude of this star is equal to 16.74 and its mass is estimated at 1.163 solar masses. The radius of the nebula is estimated at 0.108 pc.