The Red Square Nebula The Red Square Nebula surrounds a hot star known as MWC 922. It is located about 5000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Serpens (the Serpent).

Like the Ring Nebula, it is a planetary nebula - an expanding cloud of gas given off by a dying star. Its symmetry and level of intricate linear form make the Red Square nebula the most symmetrical object of comparable complexity ever imaged. It displays twin opposed conical cavities (known as a bipolar nebula), along the axis of which can be seen a remarkable sequence of sharply defined linear rungs or bars. This series of rungs and conical surfaces lie nested, one within the next, down to the heart of the system, where the hyperbolic bicone surfaces are crossed by a dark lane running across the principle axis.  

This false-color near-infrared image combines adaptive optics data from the Palomar 200-inch (5.1-meter) Hale Telescope and the Keck-2 Telescope. Adaptive optics removed the blurring effects of Earth's atmosphere to produce this very high resolution image.