[Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, M. Barlow (University College London), N. Cox (ACRI-ST), R. Wesson (Cardiff University)]
Mumbai: The NASA James Webb Space (JWS) Telescope Monday August 21, 2023 dropped new images of the well-known Ring Nebula with unprecedented detail. The new details of the dying star also gives us a glimpse into what could happen to our Sun.
Formed by a star throwing off its outer layers as it runs out of fuel, the Ring Nebula is an archetypal planetary nebula which is relatively close to Earth at roughly 2,500 light-years away.
With the new images of this dying star at the centre of the Ring Nebula, astronomers have apparently been able to reveal structures that no previous telescope has been able to detect.
The object, also known as Messier 57 (M57) and NGC 6720, was born from a dying star that expelled its outer layers into space. A team of scientists led by researchers at Cardiff University say the pictures actually reveal a triple-star system.
The incredible images obtained by the JWST show around 20,000 dust clouds, known as globules, in the nebula.
"When we first saw the images, we were stunned by the amount of detail in them. The bright ring that gives the nebula its name is composed of about 20,000 individual clumps of dense molecular hydrogen gas, each of them about as massive as the Earth," Roger Wesson of Cardiff University said in a statement. "Planetary nebulas were once thought to be simple, round objects with a single dying star at the center. They were named for their fuzzy, planet-like appearance through small telescopes," Wesson said.
"When we first saw the images, we were stunned by the amount of detail in them. The bright ring that gives the nebula its name is composed of about 20,000 individual clumps of dense molecular hydrogen gas, each of them about as massive as the Earth," Roger Wesson of Cardiff University said in a statement.
"Planetary nebulas were once thought to be simple, round objects with a single dying star at the center. They were named for their fuzzy, planet-like appearance through small telescopes," Wesson said.
"Only a few thousand years ago, that star was still a red giant that was shedding most of its mass. As a last farewell, the hot core now ionizes, or heats up, this expelled gas, and the nebula responds with colorful emission of light."
"The nebula is shaped like a distorted doughnut. We are gazing almost directly down one of the poles of this structure, with a brightly coloured barrel of material stretching away from us. Although the centre of this doughnut may look empty, it is actually full of lower density material that stretches both towards and away from us, creating a shape similar to a rugby ball slotted into the doughnut’s central gap", the astronomers said.
"The colourful main ring is composed of gas thrown off by a dying star at the centre of the nebula. This star is on its way to becoming a white dwarf – a very small, dense, and hot body that is the final evolutionary stage for a star like the Sun", they said.
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