The glorious, billowing Southern Ring Nebula is the cocoon of a dying star — and it has a secret. Scientists have found this nebula to exhibit a double-ring structure that evidences not one, but possibly three stars at its heart.

The Southern Ring Nebula, also designated NGC 3132, is a planetary nebula located about 2,000 light-years away in the constellation of Vela, the Sails. The name “planetary nebula” is a misnomer — such nebulas have nothing to do with planets. Instead, they are the final exhalations of dying, sun-like stars, which transform inside the nebulous chrysalis until finally blossoming into a white dwarf. A nebula is formed from the dying star’s outer envelope, which is puffed off into space following the star’s red giant phase.

The Southern Ring Nebula was imaged in December 2022 by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which revealed molecular hydrogen gas forming the nebula’s “exoskeleton.” This refers to warm gas radiating with a temperature equal to about 1,000 kelvin (1,340 degrees Fahrenheit, or 726 degrees Celsius) as it gets illuminated and heated by ultraviolet light coming from the white dwarf itself. That exoskeleton, however, only represents a small fraction of the molecular gas in the nebula.

Related: Horsehead Nebula rears its head in gorgeous new James Webb Space Telescope images (video)

A team led by Joel Kastner of the Rochester Institute of Technology went hunting for more of the nebula’s molecular gas, specifically searching for carbon monoxide gas using the Submillimeter Array (SMA), which is a group of eight radio telescopes on an inactive volcano named Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Carbon monoxide is mixed in with hydrogen and other molecular gases inside the nebula, so observing the carbon monoxide content is actually a proxy for observing all those other molecules that are not as easy to detect. Sure enough, the SMA was able to measure both the distribution and velocities of the carbon monoxide molecules, showing which parts are moving towards us and which are moving away from us.

“JWST showed us the molecules of hydrogen and how they stack up in the sky, while the Submillimeter Array shows us the carbon monoxide that is colder that you can’t see in the JWST image,” said Kastner in a press statement.

As the Southern Ring’s name suggests, it is primarily shaped (from our point of view) as a ring. The SMA observations showed that this ring is expanding, which is to be expected as the nebula slowly grows before eventually dispersing. However, the data also allowed Kastner’s team to create a three-dimensional map of the nebula’s molecular exoskeleton. This offered up a surprise. Not only were the researchers able to show that what we see as a ring is merely a lobe in a bi-polar nebula seen end-on, but they also found a second ring perpendicular to the first.

“When we started to turn the whole nebula around in 3D, we immediately saw it was really a ring, and then we were amazed to see there was another ring,” said Kastner.

The whole bizarre arrangement paints a fascinating tail of not one, not even two, but quite possibly three stars at the heart of the nebula. Only one of these stars, the most massive of the three, will have reached the end of its life — but the stellar trio, if all three really exist, are likely either too close to one another or too faint to be separately resolved, even by the JWST.

There’s growing evidence that some planetary nebulas, at least those that sport complex structures, are formed from the interference of a companion star to the central dying star. For the Southern Ring, Kastner’s team posits that a triple system formed of a close binary is orbited by a more distant, third star within an orbital radius of 60 astronomical units of the binary (one astronomical unit, AU, is the distance between Earth and the sun, and in our solar system 60 AU would be out at the far edge of the Kuiper Belt).

The two lobes of the Southern Ring have a narrow, or “pinched,” waistline, like an hourglass, which is a common feature of planetary nebulas emanating from a binary star system in which one of the stars is reaching the end of its life. The binary companion is able to corral the material shed by the dying star so that it escapes along a polar, rather than equatorial, direction, forming the two lobes. The JWST’s mid-infrared observations support this hypothesis, having found an excess of infrared light coming from the central star system, which is a classic signature of a dusty disk formed from interactions between the red giant and a close binary companion.

So, that explains the first ring. The origin of the second ring, the team says, is less certain. 

Though the Southern Ring appears bi-lobed, some material must have been emitted as a roughly spherical or ellipsoidal envelope of material cast off by the red giant, a rapid mass-loss event that perhaps represented its final exhalation of material to leave behind the white dwarf. The binary star system produces a series of fast, narrow jets, but if a third star is present, then the extra star’s gravity would act on the inner binary, causing the direction of the jets to “wobble,” like a spinning top. Those precessing jets would have carved out a circular hollow in the ellipsoidal component of the nebula, thereby creating the second ring.

Kastner emphasizes that this explanation is still speculative, but the nebula’s central ionized cavity does bear the evidence of such jets in its structure.

Other ring-shaped planetary nebulas, such as the Helix Nebula (NGC 7293 in Aquarius), have also been shown to have bi-lobed structures by which we are looking “down” the end of one lobe. The discovery of the second ring in the Southern Ring Nebula — or should that now be Southern Rings, plural? — is prompting astronomers to revisit some of those other well-known ring nebulas to see if they have missed second rings in them, too.

Planetary nebulas don’t just signify stellar death. They also hold the promise of new life —  literally, in a sense.

“Where does the carbon and the oxygen and the nitrogen in the universe come from?” wonders Kastner. “We’re seeing it generated in the sun-like stars that are dying, like the star that’s just died and created the Southern Ring.”

As an expanding planetary nebula disperses into interstellar space, it spreads those molecules across the cosmos, where they wind up in giant molecular clouds that form the next generation of stars and planets.

“A lot of that molecular gas would wind up in planetary atmospheres and atmospheres can enable life,” says Kastner. Indeed, all the elements on Earth heavier than hydrogen and helium originated inside stars and were then ejected into space when those stars died. 

We are literally star-stuff, as many experts like to say.

So, when we marvel at the beauty of stellar death in nebulas such as the Southern Ring, we can also imagine it as a stellar phoenix to one day rise from the ashes and begin the cycle of star-birth and death all over again. To quote Battlestar Galactica, all this has happened before, and all of this will happen again.

The findings were published on April 2 in The Astrophysical Journal.

Chris Pine, Cynthia Erivo, Kieran Culkin, Sharon Stone and Rosie Perez celebrated Jeff Bridges‘ seven-decade career at the 49th annual Chaplin Awards Gala in New York City on Monday night. But The Big Lebowski star almost chose a different career path.

During his acceptance speech for the Film at Lincoln Center‘s prestigious honor, the True Grit star shared that he originally “resisted” the idea of pursuing acting full-time for a few different reasons.

“It made me nervous, anxious, and I had other things I wanted to do,” he told the full auditorium at Alice Tully Hall. “I was very much into music. I loved ceramics, painting, and who wants to do what their parents do anyway?”

He recalled his father, actor Lloyd Bridges, explaining to him that he could do all of those things in this career path and use them all to some degree, which was one of the beauties of the job. “My mom and dad, they turned me on not only to showbiz but to the notion that I can make a difference,” he shared. “But still, even after Dad’s wise and wonderful advice, his acting pitch, it took me about 10 films before I decided to make acting a career.”

The Tron star explained that his brother and fellow actor Beau Bridges was another reason he decided to get into the acting, and his wife Sue and daughters are the reason he still does it today, noting he couldn’t make all of these films without them.

Later in the 15-minute speech, Bridges revealed the exact moment he chose to become an actor full-time. It happened right after he finished filming The Last American Hero — he was ready to take a break and spend some time on his other interests when his agent called and told him he had been offered a role in The Iceman Cometh movie adaptation, alongside Lee Marvin, Fredric March and Robert Ryan.

“I said, ‘Oh, gee. Tell them thanks, but I’m bushed,’” he recounted, adding that five minutes later, The Last American Hero director Lamont Johnson called him and asked about him passing on the role. When the actor told him he was “bushed,” the filmmaker responded, “You’re bushed, and you’re an ass.”

Bridges continued, “I decided to do a little experiment — I do that from time to time. I thought, ‘OK, I’m gonna do this movie when I don’t feel like it.’ I’ve been wondering if I’m cut out for this acting thing, and if the experience proves to be too much of a drag, well, it’ll be the final nail in the acting coffin. So I do the movie, and it turns out to be an incredible experience.”

The star took the stage following emotional tributes from Stone, Perez, Pine and Blythe Danner. He joined the likes of former honorees Viola Davis, Cate Blanchett, Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Sidney Poitier and Morgan Freeman, among many others.

Pine presented his Hell or High Water co-star with the award, after sharing a heartfelt tribute for him that praised his ability to do comedy, drama, action, sci-fi, thrillers and, of course, Westerns, like their 2016 film.

“You have to understand, that was me coming to get to work with my hero; this hero who I’ve watched all my entire life. My hero, who two months before we started filming, he shows up to rehearsal off-book on the entire film,” the Star Trek star said. “Proving not only that he’s a great actor and a consummate professional, but it also proves once and for all that getting high does not affect memory,” he joked.

Throughout the speech, Pine shared that he sees Bridges as his own personal Obi-Wan Kenobi, serving as his mentor and friend. The Wonder Woman actor also joked that he wears a bracelet with the letters WWJD on it, which he says stands for “What Would Jeff Do,” and showed off his talent for quoting some of Bridges’ most famous lines.

Pine concluded, “Your boundless compassion, Jeff, and your curiosity, grace and joy, your brilliant life, it shines in all of us. It makes us better because it helps us understand who we are, and it makes us feel just a little less alone, and that is a good thing. So, for the sake of humanity, Jeff, please keep on shining.”

During her speech, Perez, who starred alongside Bridges in Fearless, shared an anecdote about being nervous before meeting him. She also revealed that he and director Peter Weir fought to get her the role, despite the studio having a problem with their interracial relationship.

“Jeff, my dear, you are amazing as an actor, as a friend, as a mentor, as a human being,” she said. “You’re so talented, and it would be so easy to act like an asshole, but you don’t. You go out of your way to make it easy for everyone. You gave me the confidence to push through my fears and step into my greatness.”

Stone, who starred alongside Bridges in Simpatico, kicked off her speech by declaring that he is a “good man,” who puts other people before himself on set, which is a “rare, rare thing in our business.”

She recalled being a young actress in New York, trying to make it, when she came across Bridges, who she saw as this person who “personifies” power in his purity. She looked back on his iconic roles at the time and saw his sense of integrity. The Basic Instinct star also took a moment to discuss how she felt when it was revealed the Crazy Heart star had cancer. While his cancer is now in remission, it had previously grown to a 9-inch x 12-inch mass before shrinking to be the size of a “marble.”

“There was a moment when Jeff was ill, that I thought we could lose this person,” Stone said in her tribute. “I thought about the struggle that I had, and I thought, ‘I can’t. I can’t lose him. I can’t lose my friend. We can lose this emblem of decency and integrity and power and friendship.’”

In addition to the stars in person at the event, Beau Bridges, Barbra Streisand and John Lithgow all sent in videos praising the actor. Streisand recounted their time working together on The Mirror Has Two Faces and how dancing with Bridges every night after shooting had wrapped made its way into the film. Beau Bridges remembered his younger brother creating beautiful paintings, sketches and sculptures, as well as his passion for music as a kid, and now as an adult who tours with his band.

Lithgow, who currently stars alongside Bridges in The Old Man, shared that he is “a man who hates to work and he loves to act. So he made sure that when he does work, it comes as close as possible to play. He’s a man who completely embodies the phrase playing a part.”

He concluded, “I wish all young actors the good fortune to some time in their careers work with a man like Jeff Bridges. Jeff, when this job is over, it’s so wonderful to know that we’re going to be great friends for the rest of our lives.”

Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, two essential ingredients in the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon, will leave Barbieland and Los Alamos behind them as they team up for “The Fall Guy.” But will audiences turn up in force to see the “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” stars when their new action comedy debuts this weekend?

Well, “The Fall Guy” isn’t going to hit those films’ box office heights, but it should have no trouble topping charts as it kicks off the summer movie season. The film is expected to earn north of $30 million, with some rival studio executives pegging the opening at between $35 million to $40 million. The catch is that movie wasn’t cheap to produce, boasting a healthy budget of $130 million, so “The Fall Guy” will need strong word-of-mouth if it’s going to leg it out on the long path to profitability. It will also need to do well overseas. “The Fall Guy” has already opened in 38 international territories, including Australia (where it was shot to take advantage of tax credits), Israel and Central America, earning $8.4 million. It opens in more than 40 additional markets this weekend including the U.K., Germany, France and Mexico.

“The Fall Guy” finds Gosling playing a ex-stuntman who is lured back into the business to work on a massive studio movie that is being directed by his ex (Blunt). Complicating things, the star of the production (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) has gone missing. “The Fall Guy” is directed by David Leitch, who previously oversaw “Bullet Train” and “Atomic Blonde,” and who was a stunt man himself. The cast also includes Hannah Waddingham, Winston Duke and Stephanie Hsu. “The Fall Guy” will open in more than 3,800 North American venues.

In terms of competition, “The Fall Guy” will face the second weekend of Amazon MGM Studios’ “Challengers,” which took first place last weekend with a $15 million debut, as well as the opening of “Tarot,” a low-budget horror film from Sony and Screen Gems that should earn between $5 million to $6 million. That’s not bad considering that “Tarot” only cost $8 million to produce and the studio is doing an all-digital marketing campaign (none of those pricey TV spots), which should keep costs low. “Tarot” will screen in roughly 3,000 locations.

And it’s been 25 years since Jar Jar Binks first flitted across screens. In honor of that anniversary and in celebration of May the Fourth (aka “Star Wars Day”), Disney and LucasFilm will re-release “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace” in over 2,600 domestic theaters. Last year, the studio did something similar with “Return of the Jedi,” which was celebrating its 40^th anniversary, and saw it gross $5.1 million. A similar result for “Phantom Menace” doesn’t seem out of reach.

With the domestic box office down more than 20%, exhibitors are desperate for some blockbusters to fill their screens. But the actors and writers strikes, combined with COVID delays, have left studios with fewer movies to release. Movie theaters are hoping that films like “The Fall Guy” will over-perform expectations and that other upcoming releases like “Despicable Me 4” and “Deadpool & Wolverine” will bring back fans of their respective franchises. If they don’t, cinemas are in for a summer without much sizzle.