Tuesday, January 20, 2026

What Created This Strange Iron Bar In The Ring Nebula?

A massive bar-shaped cloud of iron is highlighted in red in this image of the Ring Nebula. A new multi-object spectrograph on the William Herschel Telescope was able to discern the presence of the cloud of iron, as well as the presence of other elements. Now begins the hard work of figuring out what created it. Image Credit: IAC/William Herschel Telescope/Wesson et al. 2026 MNRAS

The Ring Nebula is a well-studied planetary nebula about 2,570 light-years away. Nnew observations of the nebula with a new instrument have revealed a previously unseen component. The William Herschel Telescope used its WEAVE instrument to detect a massive 'iron bar' inside the nebula's inner layer.



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