Southern Ring Nebula

planetary nebula · NGC 3132 · JWST

2,500 light-years from Earth

Shells of gas thrown off by a dying star, layer after layer. The faint star at the centre, not the bright one beside it, made the nebula; JWST showed for the first time that it is wrapped in dust.

• 2,500 light-years · about half a light-year across
• the ejected shells are spaced by the thousands of years between puffs

kind

nebula

catalogue

NGC 3132