Its companion is a hot white dwarf, a stellar zombie of a burned-out star. This odd duo is known as a symbiotic system. Astronomers speculate that the interaction between these two stars may have sparked episodic outbursts of material, creating the gaseous bubbles that form the nebula. They interact by playing a celestial game of catch - as the red giant throws off its bulk in a powerful stellar wind, the white dwarf catches some of it. As a result, an accretion disk of material forms around the white dwarf and spirals onto its hot surface.
Gas continues to build up on the surface until it sparks an eruption, blowing material into space.
The jets of material in the lower left and upper right corners may have been accelerated by the white dwarf's accretion disk and probably are part of the older eruption.