Explanation:
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.
