The glorious, billowing Southern Ring Nebula is the cocoon of a dying star — and it has a secret. Scientists have found this nebula to exhibit a double-ring structure that evidences not one, but possibly three stars at its heart., which transform inside the nebulous chrysalis until finally blossoming into a white dwarf. A nebula is formed from the dying star's outer envelope, which is puffed off into, which revealed molecular hydrogen gas forming the nebula's"exoskeleton.
As the Southern Ring's name suggests, it is primarily shaped as a ring. The SMA observations showed that this ring is expanding, which is to be expected as the nebula slowly grows before eventually dispersing. However, the data also allowed Kastner's team to create a three-dimensional map of the nebula's molecular exoskeleton. This offered up a surprise.
Kastner emphasizes that this explanation is still speculative, but the nebula's central ionized cavity does bear the evidence of such jets in its structure.), have also been shown to have bi-lobed structures by which we are looking"down" the end of one lobe.