The Saturn Nebula is a very complex planetary nebula and contains many morphological and kinematical sub-systems in three dimensions. It includes a halo, jet-like streams, multiple shells, ansae, and small-scale filaments and knots. The ansae are expanding non-radially from the central star.

The central star (a very hot bluish dwarf with a temperature of 55,000 K) from which the nebula is believed to originate has an absolute magnitude of +1.5 (which equates to about 20 suns luminosity and a visual magnitude of 11.5). This strong ultraviolet pounding from the central star is believed to create the characteristic fluorescent green tint of the nebula via the radiation of doubly ionized oxygen. The object overall has a visual magnitude of 8 and a radial velocity of 28 miles per second in approach.

Assembled October 30, 2010