The Medusa Nebula

It's ironic that one of most most ethereal objects in the Universe is named after a monster in Greek mythology, Medusa, a beautiful "fair-cheeked" nymph who was raped by Poseidon, Lord of the Sea. Medusa transformed her hair to serpents and made her face so horrible to behold that a fleeting sight of it would turn men to stone.

Discovered in 1955, the Medusa Nebula, a very old and large planetary nebula in the constellation of Gemini on the Canis Minor border. was thought to be a supernova remnant until the early 1980s.