Happy National Donut Day you spacenuts!
Approximately 1,000 light years from Earth lies the Fine Ring planetary nebula. Planetary nebulae form when some dying stars, having expanded into a red giant phase, expel a shell of gas as they evolve into white dwarfs. Most planetary nebulae are either spherical or elliptical in shape, or bipolar but the Fine Ring looks like an almost perfect circular ring making it very unique.
Astronomers believe this particular shape as a result of the star being part of a binary system. The interaction between the primary star and its orbiting companion shapes the ejected material. Observations suggest that the binary pair is almost perfectly face-on from our vantage point, implying that the planetary nebula’s structure is aligned in the same way.
(Image credit: ESO)