Using the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) and the Manchester Echelle Spectrograph (MES), astronomers from Turkey and Mexico have investigated a planetary nebula discovered two centuries ago, known as NGC 6563. Results of the observations, published June 15 in a special issue of Galaxies journal, yield important insights into the morphology and kinematics of this nebula.
Planetary nebulae (PNe) are expanding shells of gas and dust that have been ejected from a star during its evolution from a main-sequence star into a red giant or white dwarf. They are relatively rare, but they are important for astronomers studying the chemical evolution of stars and galaxies.
Egg-like planetary nebula with ‘ears’
Discovered in 1826, NGC 6563 is a planetary nebula located some 5,400 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius. The nebula has a radius of about 0.4 light-years, and its age is estimated to be 6,350 years. The central star of NGC 6563 has a visual magnitude of 17.49, and its mass is approximately 2.93 solar masses.
Previous observations of NGC 6563 have found that it has an elliptical morphology, with one side narrower than the other, which gives it an egg-like appearance. It was also found that the nebula exhibits two small opposite lobes, which were dubbed “ears.”
A team of astronomers led by Zahra Al of Istanbul University in Turkey revisited NGC 6563 to further investigate its peculiar morphology and examine its kinematics. For their study, they employed MUSE mounted on the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile and MES at the Arcadio Poveda Telescope in Mexico.
What did the two spectrographs find?
MUSE and MES observations allowed Al’s team to distinguish an ellipsoidal main body of NGC 6563 surrounded by a thin shell, two “ear”-like protrusions, and additional small-scale structures. The systemic velocity of the nebula was measured to be -25 km/s, while the expansion velocity of the main shell was found to be 22 km/s.
Based on the collected data, the researchers estimate that the ellipsoidal shell and ring have a kinematic age of 3,700 years. When it comes to the ears, they were found to be significantly older—their kinematic age is estimated to be 7,500–8,800 years. These calculations indicate that the ears predate the formation of the main nebular shell.
“This supports a scenario in which the ears originated from earlier collimated outflows, likely associated with a binary interaction phase preceding the ejection of the dense shell,” the authors of the paper wrote.
Asymmetry tells a story
In general, the astronomers state that the observed kinematic asymmetry, with one side expanding faster than the opposite side, together with localized intensity enhancements and surface distortions, suggests that NGC 6563 is evolving within a nonuniform ambient medium. They add that the overall elliptical morphology of the nebula and the presence of older ear-like protrusions indicate that additional shaping mechanisms have likely been at work during earlier evolutionary phases.
“Internal wind interaction, thin-shell instabilities, binary-driven mass-loss episodes, and environmental effects may therefore all contribute to the present morphology, operating at different epochs and spatial scales. Further observational and theoretical studies will be necessary to better constrain the relative contributions of these mechanisms,” the scientists conclude.
Written for you by our author Tomasz Nowakowski, edited by Sadie Harley, and fact-checked and reviewed by Robert Egan—this article is the result of careful human work. We rely on readers like you to keep independent science journalism alive.
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More information
Zahra Al et al., Morphokinematic structure of the Planetary Nebula NGC 6563, Galaxies (2026). DOI: 10.3390/galaxies14030060.
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Well-known planetary nebula’s ear-like lobes rewrite its evolutionary timeline (2026, June 21)
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