space telescope james webb NASA has taken impressive pictures of the planetary nebula with its cameras Southern Ring which served to reveal details that had remained hidden from astronomers until now.

Planetary nebulae are layers of gas and dust ejected by dying stars. The one captured by the James Webb Space Telescope, the South Ring (formally NGC 3132), is located approximately 2,500 million light-years from Earth, and now we may know some specific details about it that will allow astronomers to expand on what they know. understand things like the molecules present in layers of gas and dust.

NASA explains that this telescope observation “shows the Southern Ring Nebula in an almost head-on view, but if we could rotate it to view it from the side, its three-dimensional shape would be more clearly seen as two bowls joined at the base, moving apart with a large opening in the middle“. Inside the southern ring are two stars that are connected in close orbit (that is, they orbit each other), a complex system that we know more about in detail thanks to the infrared cameras on James Webb.

The stars and their layers of light are prominent in the image on the left, which was taken with the Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam). For the image on the right, the mid-infrared instrument was used to find that the second star is surrounded by dust. Extremely fine beams of light around the planetary nebula were also detected by NIRCam. When it comes to blocking light, a nebula behaves much like the clouds we can see in Earth’s sky.for the light of the stars springs forth in greater abundance where there are holes which allow it to escape more.

The brightest star is in an earlier stage of its evolution and may eventually expel its own planetary nebula. In addition, it is capable of influencing the appearance of the southern rim, creating asymmetric patterns due to the swirling of gas and dust as it orbits its “partner”.

Planetary nebulae are capable of existing for tens of billions of years, which is why NASA sees observing them as “watching a movie in extreme slow motion.” In addition, each layer of material ejected by the star gives researchers the opportunity to precisely measure the gas and dust present in it. As the star sheds material, dust molecules form in these layers, changing the landscape. Because it is so long-lived, dust can travel for billions of years to become things like a new star or a new planet.

Images of Jupiter taken by the James Webb Space Telescope.

What about the Southern Ring? It appears that the star that is releasing the material will continue to do so, and in the very distant future the released dust and gas will disperse into space.

On the other hand, NASA also published two images of Jupiter with NIRCam and using two different wavelengths. The F212N filter was used at the shortest wavelength, while the F323N filter was used at the longest wavelength.