Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Wave Array (ALMA), astronomers have observed the carbon-rich star V Hydrae that is apparently transitioning from an asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star to a bipolar planetary nebula, and discovered a remarkable set of six slowly-expanding rings within a flared, warped disk around the star. This composite image shows V Hydrae, a carbon-rich AGB star some 1,300 light-years away in the constellation of...
