The object formed when a star ejected its outer layers during the late stages of its evolution.

The remnant core of the star, a white dwarf, is emitting vast amounts of ultraviolet radiation that ionizes, or excites, the gas surrounding it, making the nebula visible to the human eye through a telescope.

Over the course of around 10,000 years the white dwarf will cool down dramatically, diminishing the light of the nebula and making it only visible in a long-exposure photograph.

A surrounding envelope of gas, seen as a faint red glow in the image, is ionized to a much lesser extent.

An unknown force pushed out the gas at the poles, creating two faint cups at either end of the ellipse.