The Vulcan's Brain planetary nebula is a pulsar wind nebula, similar to the Crab Nebula. Located about 28,000 light-years from Sol, it features the red clouds typical of nebulae of its type. The remnant neutron star is relatively young by galactic standards at 256 million years old, and its spin rate exceeds 120 rotations per second. The star is near the upper mass limit for others of its type, with 2.4 solar masses - which is significantly above the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff limit of 2.16 solar masses. Therefore, its core may consist of quarks or muons rather than neutrons.

Two main-sequence stars also reside within the nebula, having survived the cataclysm that destroyed the system's main star. One is an A-class star with 1.78 solar masses and the other, an F-class star with 1.04 solar masses. Other than these three bodies, nothing else can be found in the system.

The nebula is visible from several nearby systems, as shown in this image, taken from nearby Lyruelks CE-O b47-5.

Vulcan's Brain is part of the so-called Vulcan Triad, which are three planetary nebulae relatively close to each other. They are as follows:

• Bya Phla WP-P e5-8, Vulcan's Eye
• Bloo Eaeb UY-A e8, Vulcan's Soul
• Lyruelks FL-P e5-41, Vulcan's Brain

At the time these were named, it was though that this area is otherwise sparse in planetary nebulae, same as most of the other galactic arms at this distance. However, years later it turned out that Vulcan's Gate has more of them than is typical: As of writing, 15 of them are known in the region, including the Vulcan Triad. Most of them can be found spinward down the arm, to the galactic southeast.