Blue Ring Nebula: 16-year-old cosmic mystery solved, revealing stellar missing link

Astronomers have solved the 16-year-old mystery surrounding the Blue Ring Nebula - an unusual, large, faint blob of gas with a star at its center. This object is unlike any they'd ever seen before in our Milky Way galaxy. The team has discovered the nebula appears to be the first known example of a merged star system at this stage.