Q725489

NGC 3132 (also known as the Eight-Burst Nebula, the Southern Ring Nebula, or Caldwell 74) is a bright and extensively studied planetary nebula in the constellation Vela. Its distance from Earth is estimated at 613 pc or 2,000 light-years. From Earth, it appears to have a strongly elliptical shape. Three-dimensional modeling of the nebula has found that NGC 3132 is a bipolar nebula, with its major axis inclined about twenty degrees from the line of sight. The central low-density cavity is surrounded by multiple ring-like structures.

The Southern Ring Nebula was selected as one of the five cosmic objects observed by the James Webb Space Telescope as part of the release of its first official science images on July 12, 2022.