This image is from an amateur astronomer, not NASA.
This is a fantastic image but it's been manipulated. The stars in front of and inside the nebula have been removed to show more of the nebulosity. Personally I prefer more realistic images.
What created this planetary nebula was a star that blew off it's outer shell in a cataclysmic event/explosion. The central star which caused or created this nebula is not seen in this image and was removed along with other stars during the processing of the image.
I should add, the central star which exploded, left behind a white dwarf star. That’s all that was left of the star. In images that are not overly manipulated, the small white dwarf star can be seen almost at dead center of the nebula core.