Check out this stunning image of Ring Nebula captured by Hubble telescope

The Ring Nebula, also known as Messier 57 (M57), is one of the most beautiful sights in the night sky. Discovered by the French astronomer Antoine Darquier de Pellepoix in 1779, it is one of the most famous of all planetary nebulae - the glowing remains of a sun-like star.

M57 lies about 2,500 light-years away in the constellation Lyra and is a popular target for amateur astronomers. It is best observed in dark skies away from city lights and is visible from both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

In this image from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Ring Nebula appears as a bright, donut-like ring of glowing gas with a dark center. The blue-green color of the nebula is caused by ionized atoms in the gas.

This picture of the Ring Nebula was featured as NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day on April 2. Sharing this stunning image, NASA wrote, "It was noticed hundreds of years ago by stargazers who could not understand its unusual shape. It looked like a ring on the sky. Except for the rings of Saturn, the Ring Nebula (M57) may be the most famous celestial circle. We now know what it is, and that its iconic shapeis due to our lucky perspective."

"The recent mapping of the expanding nebula's 3-D structure, based in part on this clear Hubble image,indicates that the nebula is a relatively dense, donut-like ring wrapped around the middle of an (American) football-shaped cloud of glowing gas. Our view from planet Earth looks down the long axis of the football, face-on to the ring. Of course, in this well-studied example of a planetary nebula, the glowing material does not come from planets. Instead, the gaseous shroud represents outer layers expelled from the dying, once sun-like star, now a tiny pinprick of light seen at the nebula's center. Intense ultraviolet light from the hot central star ionizes atoms in the gas. The Ring Nebula is about one light-year across and 2,500 light-years away."