Lords of the Ring Nebula

The Ring Nebula, also known as Messier 57 or NGC 6720, appears to look like a massive circle due to our perspective on Earth. 

André van der Hoeven, Terry Hancock, Fred Herrmann, Mike van den Berg and Mathijn Ippel logged in a combined 104 hours of exposure time to take this photo. 

CREDIT: André van der Hoeven, Terry Hancock, Fred Herrmann, Mike van den Berg and Mathijn Ippel

The darkness of deep space bound five astrophotographers together in the pursuit of capturing one amazing image of the iconic Ring Nebula. And like in some space version of Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings," they did just that.

Observing from different places around the world, André van der Hoeven, Terry Hancock, Fred Herrmann, Mike van den Berg and Mathijn Ippel teamed up — logging in more than 100 hours of exposure time — to take this great photo.

The Ring Nebula, also known as Messier 57 or NGC 6720, appears to look like a massive circle from Earth due to our perspective.

The nebula is thought to actually be a barrel-shaped cloud of gas and dust. This nebula is about one light-year across and 2,000 light-years away in the northern constellation of Lyra.

NASA Hubble Image: Ring Nebula

In this composite image, visible-light observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope are combined with infrared data from the ground-based Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona to assemble a dramatic view of the well-known Ring Nebula. 

Called a planetary nebula, the Ring Nebula is the glowing remains of a Sun-like star. 

The object is tilted toward Earth so that astronomers see the ring face-on. 

The Hubble observations reveal that the nebula's shape is more complicated than astronomers thought. Image released May 23, 2013.

CREDIT: NASA, ESA, C.R. O'Dell (Vanderbilt University), and D. Thompson (Large Binocular Telescope Observatory)

The iconic Ring Nebula may seem like just a stunning circle of wispy interstellar gas, but new images from the Hubble Space Telescope reveal it to be more like a deep-space jelly doughnut, scientists say.

C. Robert O'Dell

The new Hubble telescope images have allowed astronomers to take their most detailed look at the Ring Nebula than ever before, revealing an unprecedented view of the nebula's three-dimensional structure.

"The nebula is not like a bagel, but rather, it's like a jelly doughnut, because it's filled with material in the middle," study leader C. Robert O'Dell, an astronomer with Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., said in a statement today (May 23).

A Ring Nebula around Wolf-Rayet Star

Made with narrow and broad band filters, this colourful cosmic snap shot covers a field of view about the size of the full Moon within the boundaries of the constellation Cygnus.

It highlights the bright edge of a ring-like nebula traced by the glow of ionized hydrogen and oxygen gas.

Embedded in the region's interstellar clouds of gas and dust, the complex, glowing arcs are sections of bubbles or shells of material swept up by the wind from Wolf-Rayet star WR 134, brightest star near the center of the frame.

Distance estimates put WR 134 about 6,000 light-years away, making the frame over 50 light-years across.

Shedding their outer envelopes in powerful stellar winds, massive Wolf-Rayet stars have burned through their nuclear fuel at a prodigious rate and end this final phase of massive star evolution in a spectacular supernova explosion.

The stellar winds and final supernovae enrich the interstellar material with heavy elements to be incorporated in future generations of stars.