Ring Nebula

American  

noun

Astronomy.

1. a planetary nebula in the constellation Lyra that has a ringlike appearance surrounding its central star.

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Example Sentences

Astronomers in Europe have identified an unexpected feature hidden inside the famous Ring Nebula.

From Science Daily

The Ring Nebula was first observed in 1779 by French astronomer Charles Messier in the northern constellation Lyra.2 It is a glowing shell of gas produced when a star reaches the end of its nuclear fuel burning stage and ejects its outer layers into space.

From Science Daily

Although it's a well-known fact in astronomy, many people don't realize that when we see the Ring Nebula — the famed celestial oculi known as M57, whose hypnotic blue iris dazzles the northern constellation of Lyra — what we're actually seeing is the slow-motion death throes of a white dwarf star.

From Salon

Where once humans could only see the blurry glow of the Ring Nebula's distant fire, the latest images from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope have now given us a startlingly sharp map of its radiant halo and intricate inner-ring filaments, allowing us to discover for the first time what our own sun's final hours might look like.

From Salon

The chemical light of its firework-spray nebula explodes in Technicolor spikes, wisps, rings — wild arcs that rip through the dark as the star thrashes off its atmosphere, shedding luminous clouds, as the Ring Nebula has, for thousands of years.

From Salon