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Astronomers have spotted a mysterious cloud in the shape of a bar 2,600 light-years from Earth.
It appears in the Ring nebula, also called Messier 57, which consists of the glowing remains of what was once a sun-like star in the constellation Lyra.
Researchers said it is possible the cloud of iron atoms in the shape of a bar is the remnants of a rocky planet which was vaporised when the star threw off its outer layers.
It has been speculated that Earth could face the same fate when the sun goes through a similar process, billions of years from now.
The iron atoms stretch about 3.7 trillion miles (six trillion kilometres) long across the face of the nebula, which has been studied extensively since its discovery by French astronomer Charles Messier in 1779.
Researchers made the observation using a new instrument called WEAVE, short for WHT Enhanced Area Velocity Explorer, on the William Herschel Telescope, located on La Palma in the Canary Islands.
“It is exciting to see that even a very familiar object – much studied over many decades – can throw up a new surprise when observed in a new way,” said astronomer Roger Wesson of Cardiff University and University College London.
The research was published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
The Ring Nebula is believed to have formed roughly 4,000 years ago, very recently in cosmic time. It is mostly made up of hydrogen and helium.
The nebula formed when a star about twice the sun’s mass ran out of nuclear fuel in its core, swelled up into what is called a red giant.
It then expelled its outer layers before becoming a compact stellar remnant known as a white dwarf, about the size of Earth.
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