Emission nebula NGC 6164 was created by a rare, hot, luminous O-type star, some 40 times as massive as the Sun. Seen at the center of the cosmic cloud, the star is a mere 3 to 4 million years old. In another three to four million years the massive star will end its life in a supernova explosion. Spanning around 4 light-years, the nebula itself has a bipolar symmetry. That makes it similar in appearance to more familiar planetary nebulae - the gaseous shrouds surrounding dying sun-like stars. Also like many planetary nebulae, NGC 6164 has been found to have an extensive, faint halo, revealed in this deep telescopic image of the region. Expanding into the surrounding interstellar medium, the material in the halo is likely from an earlier active phase of the O star. The gorgeous skyscape is a composite of narrow-band image data highlighting the glowing gas, and broad-band data of the surrounding starfield. NGC 6164 is 4,200 light-years away in the southern constellation of Norma.
NGC 6164-5 is a bipolar nebula surrounding the star HD 148937.
Although the nebula was believed to represent a planetary nebula, it is now understood to represent a shell-like ejected nebula, formed by the winds of its young central star.
NG 6164 gets in name, in part, from its close proximity to the nebula The Fighting Dragons of Ara, NGC 6188. The Dragons Egg is a bipolar emission nebula. The term bipolar refers to the symmetry of the central “egg”. An emission nebula is a cloud of high temperature gas. Within this type of nebula, a star energizes the atoms in the cloud with ultraviolet radiation. The process is similar to that of a neon light. This causes the nebula to glow. The filamentary outer halo was probably caused by an earlier gas burst of the central star about 4000 years ago (an astronomical blink of an eye). The central star is a very rare O-type star, one that is very large and hot and has a mass between 15 and 90 times that of our Sun. In this case the star is about 40 times as large as the Sun. O-type stars, being so large, have short lives because they burn through their supply of hydrogen quickly. This star is about 3 – 4 million years old and will end its life in about 4 million years in a violent supernova explosion.

THANK YOU  to Martin Pugh for providing me this high-quality data.