Menzel 3 (Mz3), or the "ant nebula", was imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) early in 2001.
It is a bipolar planetary nebula.
Planetary nebulae are formed when dying stars (late in their Red Giant phase of evolution) eject their outer
layers. Because of this formation mechanism, they are usually spherical in shape, similar to the
Ring Nebula (M57). A bipolar planetary nebula forms in
a binary star system, when a low-mass companion becomes enveloped in the outer layers of the expanding dying star. Its
presence causes the outer shell of the dying star to eject along the axis of the companion's orbit (i.e. perpendicular
to the plane of its orbit).
