A dying star shines like gold in new images from the James Webb Space Telescope. About 2,750 light-years from Earth, a glowing gas ring in the constellation Lyra is called Messier 57, or the Ring Nebula, and is formed by the ejection of matter from a lower-mass star at the time of its death. JWST’s impressive resolution will reveal intricate knots and patterns in this material to better understand what happens when stars like the Sun reach the end of their lives.

“We are witnessing the final chapters of a star’s life, a preview of the Sun’s distant future, so to speak, and the JWST observations have opened a new window in understanding these spectacular cosmic events,” explains University College astrophysicist Mike Barlow. Co-leader of the Kiltseva nebula in London and the international JWST project in the UK.

“We can use the Ring Nebula as our laboratory to study how planetary nebulae form and evolve.”

A planetary nebula has nothing to do with planets; They were so named because 18th century astronomers thought their round shapes resembled planets. In fact, they are much larger and more dynamic: clouds of material surrounding stars less than eight solar masses at the end of their lives.

When the fusion material in their cores is depleted, these stars destabilize and eject all their outer material. No longer supported by external fusion pressure, the stellar core collapses under the influence of gravity on the white dwarf. This is the ultimate fate of the Sun and most stars in the Milky Way.

The Ring Nebula was created by a star that, in our view, has reached the end of fusion within the last 2000 years. At its center is a white dwarf with a mass of about 60 percent of the Sun; The material around this star expands into space in the form of a sphere that appears to us as a ring filled with glowing material.

The nebula’s outer shell is thick and dusty, divided into complex structures where it cuts through and interacts with the interstellar medium. Studying these structures can help scientists understand the physical processes involved in forming and expanding a planetary nebula; and JWST provided fascinating details.

“The James Webb Space Telescope has given us an extraordinary view of the Ring Nebula that we’ve never seen before,” says Barlow. “The high-resolution images not only show the intricate details of the expanding nebula’s envelope, but also show the inner region around the central white dwarf with remarkable clarity.”

The data is still being analyzed, but the observations already reveal an unexpected complexity that the team is excited to explore. In addition to the incredible details in the structure of the crust, the observations provided a wealth of information about the composition of the nebula, including large carbon molecules whose origins are currently unclear.

“These images have more than aesthetic appeal; They provide a rich scientific insight into the processes of stellar evolution,” says Nick Cox, astrophysicist at ACRI-ST in France and co-leader of the JWST Ring Nebula project. We hope to gain some understanding.” Source