The Red Spider Nebula as captured by the James Webb Space Telescope.(Image credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. H. Kastner (Rochester Institute of Technology))
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is observing Halloween with a striking image displaying unprecedented details of the Red Spider Nebula.
The picture, taken by JWST’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), reveals dust and gas being released by a perishing star to create a planetary nebula, its filaments curving and extending like the appendages of a cosmic arachnid.
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“The extremities are fuzzy and radiate with molecular hydrogen emission, which have broken free from the torus,” Mikako Matsuura, an astrophysicist at Cardiff University and a co-researcher on the program that acquired the image, expressed in an email statement. “It remains vague as to why the outflows appear ‘hairy’. One theory is that the discharge from the primary star wasn’t constant, possibly because mass transfer from the companion star influenced the timing of the outflow.”
For the majority of their existence, stars ignite by fusing hydrogen into helium. But after they’ve depleted their hydrogen fuel, they commence fusing helium into even heavier elements, resulting in a substantial rise in energy release that makes them expand into red giants hundreds or even thousands of times their initial size.
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The star within the Red Spider Nebula (NGC 6537) has already been transformed into a red giant and is presently shedding its outer layers to reveal its scorching core. The ultraviolet light from the star’s fading heart is ionizing this gas and dust, making it illuminate.
Spectacular images like this one give scientists rare insights into the potential destiny of our own solar system, after our sun evolves into a red giant in 5 billion years’ time. Upon consuming its fuel supply, our star will similarly expand outwards as a red giant, engulfing Mercury, Venus and quite possibly even Earth and Mars throughout the process.
However, should our planet be rescued from the sun’s transformation, it could discover itself within a scene rather like this, wandering along the glistening appendages of a collapsing cosmic arachnid.
TOPICSJames Webb Space Telescope
Ben TurnerSocial Links NavigationActing Trending News Editor
Ben Turner is a U.K. based writer and editor at Live Science. He covers physics and astronomy, tech and climate change. He graduated from University College London with a degree in particle physics before training as a journalist. When he’s not writing, Ben enjoys reading literature, playing the guitar and embarrassing himself with chess.
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