星状星云竟能编织出如此繁杂的一张蜘蛛网。“红蜘蛛星云”所展示的复杂结构是一颗正常恒星在抛出其外层气体变成白矮星的过程中形成的，这个具有双瓣对称结构的行星状星云正式编号为 NGC 6537，中心包裹着一颗之前曾观察过的炽热白矮星，它很可能是一个双星系统中的一员。据测算，来自中央星（就在图中心附近）的恒星风速度高达每秒1000公里以上，它推动星云外壳使其扩张，并导致炽热气体波与尘埃相互撞击。上面这幅由哈勃望远镜数据合成的假彩图片中所描绘的就是冲击波导致的原子发光。红蜘蛛星云位于人马座内，其准确距离目前还不能确定，估计大约在4000光年左右。
 
The Red Spider Planetary Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Carlos Milovic, Hubble Legacy Archive, NASA
Explanation: Oh what a tangled web a planetary nebula can weave. The Red Spider Planetary Nebula shows the complex structure that can result when a normal star ejects its outer gases and becomes a white dwarf star. Officially tagged NGC 6537, this two-lobed symmetric planetary nebula houses one of the hottest white dwarfs ever observed, probably as part of a binary star system. Internal winds emanating from the central stars, visible in the center, have been measured in excess of 1000 kilometers per second. These winds expand the nebula, flow along the nebula's walls, and cause waves of hot gas and dust to collide. Atoms caught in these colliding shocks radiate light shown in the above representative-color picture by the Hubble Space Telescope. The Red Spider Nebula lies toward the constellation of the Archer (Sagittarius). It's distance is not well known but has been estimated by some to be about 4,000 light-years.