Southern Ring Nebula (NGC 3132)

Southern Ring Nebula (NGC 3132) — nebula, explore its interactive 3D model in Cosmoscope.

Explore Southern Ring Nebula (NGC 3132) in an interactive 3D view of space. Inspect its astronomical data and the observations or reconstructions behind the model.

Shells of gas puffed off by a dying star over thousands of years, pictured in near-infrared light in one of Webb’s first images in 2022. From Earth’s side its pieces line up into Webb’s image; fly round it and they part into its 3D shape, whose depths are a model.

Type

Planetary nebula

Distance

About 2,500 light-years

Size

Bright shell about 0.7 light-years long

Heart

The dying star is the fainter of the two central stars; Webb first showed it wrapped in dust

Shown here

Webb’s near-infrared image with its stars removed, cut into many thousands of pieces (fine threads along its filaments, broad ones only for smooth glow) at different depths: from Earth they line up into the image; from elsewhere they show a two-lobed shell seen nearly end-on inside a clumpy outer envelope

3D shape

Illustrative, after Monreal-Ibero & Walsh 2020, Kastner et al. 2024 and Monteiro et al. 2025

Image credit

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI and the Webb ERO Production Team · CC BY 4.0

Explore Southern Ring Nebula (NGC 3132) in 3D

Southern Ring Nebula (NGC 3132) is placed in three-dimensional space using catalogue coordinates and an adopted astronomical distance. Rotate and zoom to explore the model. Stellar surfaces, gas structure and dust depths may be reconstructed or illustrative, as described in its facts; this is not live imagery from a telescope.