As one of the brightest planetary nebula on the sky, the Ring Nebula can be seen with a small telescope in the constellation of Lyra . The Ring Nebula lies about 4000 light years away, and is roughly 500 times the diameter of our Solar System . In this recent picture by the Hubble Space Telescope , dust filaments and globules are visible far from the central star. This helps indicate that the Ring Nebula is not spherical, but cylindrical. Perhaps the Ring Nebula would appear differently if viewed sideways .
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