This tiny object is a planetary nebula located 2000 light years away in the southern constellation of Lupus. The low declination of this object (-44 deg.) makes it difficult for me to obtain a crisp image.
The box shape results from our side point of view of the hollow cylinder, formed when hot gas flows out of each pole of the dying star. Looking carefully at the image, you can see the circular cross-section of the cylindrical nebula in the form of a whitish ring at the center of the nebula.
In this relatively "true color" RGB image, I find the colors interesting - blue across the center, reddish at the top edge, magenta along the bottom edge, and white in the center circle. The faint ends of the cylinder both appear to be somewhat closed, forming more of an oval than a box shape.
The central star is not visible to me in this image, nor is it visible in the Hubble image of this object.
Please see a more recent image of this object
here.
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