NGC 3132 is a bright and extensively studied planetary nebula in the constellation Vela. Its distance from Earth is estimated at 613 pc or 2,000 light-years. From Earth, it appears to have a strongly elliptical shape. Three-dimensional modeling of the nebula has found that NGC 3132 is a bipolar nebula, with its major axis inclined about twenty degrees from the line of sight. The central low-density cavity is surrounded by multiple ring-like structures.