Huge waves are sculpted in this two-lobed nebula called the Red Spider Nebula, located some 3,000 light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius. This warm planetary nebula harbors one of the hottest stars known and its powerful stellar winds generate waves 100 billion kilometers high. The waves are caused by supersonic shocks, formed when the local gas is compressed and heated in front of the rapidly expanding lobes. Read more
NGC 6537 (also Red Spider Nebula, ESO 590-PN1 and HD 312582) is a magnitude +13.0 planetary nebula located ~5,000 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius. The star at the center of the Red Spider Nebula is surrounded by a dust shell making its exact properties hard to determine. Its surface temperature is probably 150,000-250,000 K although a temperature of 340,000 K or even 500,000 K is not ruled out, making it among the hottest white dwarf stars known.
The planetary nebula was discovered by American astronomer Edward Charles Pickering using a 38.1 cm (15 inch) refractor at the Harvard College Observatory on the 15th July 1882.
Right Ascension 18h 05m 13.1s, Declination -19° 50' 34.9"