This object is literally the death spiral of a dying star. The tiny planetary nebula is located about 6500 light-years away in the constellation of Hercules. It is very small, at a diameter of about 40 arc-seconds, which corresponds to a true diameter of about 1 light year. The field radius of the image is 0.076 degrees.
The structure consists of a bright blue central star surrounded by an inner region of bright OIII arcing gas fronts. At each end, faint ansae propelled by strong jets of gas protrude along both ends of a bipolar axis.
Although this PN has an unusual shape, it is not unique. The structural aspects mentioned above - bright OIII arcing gas fronts and faint ansae in a tiny PN - are quite similar to that of other PN I have imaged such as
NGC 2371 and
NGC 6309.
This PN is beautiful but in my opinion has been saddled with a so-so nickname, the "Turtle Nebula". Somehow to me the nickname doesn't do justice to either the nebula or turtles.
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