IC 418 IC 418 IC 418, also known as Spirograph Nebula, is a planetary nebula in the Milky Way Galaxy. The name derives from the intricate pattern of the nebula, which resembles a pattern which can be created using the Spirograph, a toy that produces geometric patterns (specifically, hypotrochoids and epitrochoids) on paper. Only a few million years ago, IC 418 was probably a common red giant star. Since running out of nuclear fuel, though, the outer envelope has begun expanding outward leaving a hot remnant core destined to become a white dwarf star. IC 418 lies about 3600 light-years away and
Twists of curves Twists of curves In the mathematical field of algebraic geometry, an elliptic curve E over a field K has an associated quadratic twist, that is another elliptic curve which is isomorphic to E over an algebraic closure of K. In particular, an isomorphism between elliptic curves is an isogeny of degree 1, that is an invertible isogeny. Some curves have higher order twists such as cubic and quartic twists. The curve and its twists have the same j-invariant. First assume K is a field of characteristic different from 2. Let E be an elliptic curve over K of the form: