I remember the first time I pointed my 25cm telescope at the Ring Nebula in Lyra. Even through modest amateur optics, that surreal view of the ring hanging in space was breathtaking, the glowing embers of a dying star. Planetary nebulae like the Ring have long been favourites among amateur astronomers, not just for their visual beauty but because they represent the end of a star's life. However, new research is revealing equally fascinating structures at the opposite end of stellar evolution, the discs where planets are born, and they're not quite what we expected.
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