Mz 3 (Menzel 3) is a young bipolar planetary nebula (PN) in the constellation Norma that is composed of a bright core and four distinct high-velocity outflows that have been named lobes, columns, rays, and chakram.

[5] One study suggests that the dense nebular gas at its center may have originated from a source different from that of its extended lobes.

They both have point-like bright nuclei, are narrow-waisted bipolar nebulae, and share surprisingly similar spatially dependent spectra.

[7] Of the morphological features of Mz 3, one of the most unusual and odd is the chakram (first noticed in 2004), a faint, large, limb brightened ellipse that appears to have its center on the PN's nucleus.

Consequently, this must not be a simple equatorial flow despite the fact that its motion appears to be strictly radial (that is, there is no indication of rotation which would suggest that this feature is dynamically stable).

The telescope was later used on June 30, 1998 by Raghvendra Sahai and John Trauger of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to picture the PN.