News.discovery.com - 5/13/13, Jason Major
New Hubble image of the Ring Nebula (Messier 57). Credit: NASA, ESA, and C. Robert O’Dell (Vanderbilt University).
One of the more well-known objects within our galaxy, the Ring Nebula has been observed by astronomers since the late 1700s. It is a definitive planetary nebula, visible from Earth as a bright and multi-colored ring of material violently expelled from a sun-like star reaching the end of its life. Looking like a gigantic cosmic eye, the Ring Nebula has been imaged countless times — but new observations with the Hubble Space Telescope have finally revealed its true shape.
It’s a big doughnut.
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