Astronomers discover an enormous iron bar in the famous Ring Nebula: 'We definitely need to know more'

The planetary nebula known as the Ring Nebula with its central iron bar marked in red.

Sometimes, even the most familiar astronomical objects can hold surprises for researchers. Take the well-known Ring Nebula, which astronomers have now discovered harbors a mysterious "bar" of iron atoms.

Also known as Messier 57 (M57), the Ring Nebula is a "planetary nebula" (a misleading name because there are no planets involved) located around 2,000 light-years away. It is the glowing remains of what was once a sun-like star, which ran out of fuel for nuclear fusion and shed its outer layers as its core collapsed to form a dense stellar remnant called a white dwarf.