That means that observing the Ring Nebula with space telescopes offers astronomers the opportunity to see what is going on within planetary nebula and shed light on the life and death of stars.
M57, or the Ring Nebula, is particularly fascinating to astronomers because not only is it close enough to be viewed with even amateur telescopes, but from our vantage point in the solar system, the planetary nebula is tilted so that it is viewed face-on. At its heart is a white speck that represents a white dwarf star - what remains of that extinct stellar body's core. The Ring Nebula is the glowing remains of a long-dead star, a class of astronomical object called a 'planetary nebula,' which somewhat confusingly has nothing to do with planets.
The Ring Nebula or Messier 57 as never seen before in images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope (Image credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/Institute for Earth and Space Exploration/JWST Ring Nebula Imaging Project)
