The Saturn Nebula reveals its complexity
(PHYSorg.com Space & Earth)

A planetary nebula is the corpse that remains when a star dies. When planetary nebulae were observed for the first time with a telescope, they presented a roughly circular shape, resembling that of the gas giant planets. Hence their name, which remains in use even though they are very different from planets. The article published recently by Astronomy & Astrophysics is the first detailed study of a galactic planetary nebula with the MUSE integral field spectrograph on ESO`s Very Large Telescope (VLT). This work has revealed unexpected complexity in the gas and dust expelled by a giant red star at the end of its life. The distribution of temperatures and densities within the nebula challenges current techniques to unravel the history of the formation processes and demonstrates the potential of the MUSE instrument to revise research concerning planetary nebulae.