NGC 3132: The Eight Burst Nebula
From NASA’s Astronomy
Picture of the Day
It's the dim star, not the bright one, near the
center of NGC
3132 that created this odd but beautiful planetary
nebula.
Nicknamed the Eight-Burst Nebula and
the Southern Ring Nebula,
the glowing gas originated in the outer layers of a star like our Sun.
In this representative color
picture, the hot blue pool of light seen surrounding this binary system is
energized by the hot surface of the faint star.
Although photographed
to explore unusual symmetries, it's the asymmetries that help make
this planetary
nebula so intriguing.
Neither the unusual shape of the surrounding
cooler shell nor
the structure and placements of the cool filamentary dust lanes running
across NGC 3132 are
well understood.
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)