mick laBriola

RCW 100, also catalogued as the “Fine Ring Nebula” or Shapley 1, is an elegant planetary nebula situated in the southern constellation Norma. Discovered by Harlow Shapley in 1936, it’s located at roughly 4000 ly from Earth. ts nearly perfect ring shape is especially remarkable given that its central star is a binary , which often leads to more asymmetric nebulae. In the case of RCW 100, the geometry of the system aligns in such a way that we observe a flat equatorial ring nearly edge‑on, giving it its fine circular appearance.