Jul 16, 2025
Cosmic Ant and Squid © ©
seen from India
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from Türkiye
seen from Türkiye
seen from Iraq
seen from Russia
seen from United States
seen from Brazil
seen from United States
seen from Russia
seen from South Korea
seen from Egypt
seen from United States
seen from South Korea
seen from China
seen from Singapore
seen from South Korea
Cosmic Ant and Squid © ©
🦋🐜🎻 Shaiapouf moodboard 🦋🐜🎻
Hubble: This image of a celestial object called the Ant Nebula may shed new light on the future demise of our Sun (December 10, 1999)
Astronomy Picture of the Day
2005 May 1
Planetary Nebula Mz3: The Ant Nebula
Credit: R. Sahai (JPL) et al., Hubble Heritage Team, ESA, NASA
Explanation: Why isn't this ant a big sphere? Planetary nebula Mz3 is being cast off by a star similar to our Sun that is, surely, round. Why then would the gas that is streaming away create an ant-shaped nebula that is distinctly not round? Clues might include the high 1000-kilometer per second speed of the expelled gas, the light-year long length of the structure, and the magnetism of the star visible above at the nebula's center. One possible answer is that Mz3 is hiding a second, dimmer star that orbits close in to the bright star. A competing hypothesis holds that the central star's own spin and magnetic field are channeling the gas. Since the central star appears to be so similar to our own Sun, astronomers hope that increased understanding of the history of this giant space ant can provide useful insight into the likely future of our own Sun and Earth.
Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
A service of: EUD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Ant Nebula
(Image credit: NASA/Space Telescope Science Institute)
Ant Nebula vs Red Spider Nebula
Ant Nebula
Red Spider Nebula
Ant Nebula
"This image from NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of a celestial object called the Ant Nebula may shed new light on the future demise of our Sun."
Image and information from NASA.
The ant nebula
From ground-based telescopes, this cosmic object — the glowing remains of a dying, sun-like star — resembles the head and thorax of an ant. The image, released in 2001, of the so-called ant nebula, otherwise known as Menzel 3, shows far greater detail revealing a pair of fiery lobes protruding from the dying star.
NASA/Reuters