NASA released breathtaking new photos of a star as it died, providing the closest look yet at the planetary nebula NGC 1514. Taken by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the photos reveal the complexity of the nebula, including features never before seen in such detail.
Webb Reveals Dust Rings and Core “Holes” in Nebula
With its powerful mid-infrared vision, the James Webb Telescope imaged the dying light of one of two central stars shedding its outer layers of gas and dust as it approached the end of its life. The images show an interesting glimpse of the dusty “fuzzy” rings and the strange “holes” in the core pink area of the nebula, where material has broken through.
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NASA researchers explain that the web of small, fine holes closer to the center of the nebula indicates where more rapidly moving material probably broke through. Although NGC 1514’s rings were first found back in 2010, Webb’s powerful instruments enabled scientists to investigate them in much more detail.
The rings, previously visible only in basic infrared observations, now appear as clusters forming tangled and irregular patterns—offering insight into how the dying star is interacting with its binary companion.
A Cosmic Dance of Two Stars
NASA said the two central stars of NGC 1514, which appear as a single point to Webb because they are close together, are encircled by bright diffraction spikes and an orange-colored arc of dust. The two stars are gravitationally bound to each other in a very tight orbit over a period of nine years.
One of the stars, initially many times larger than our Sun, is now compressed to its hot, dense core after losing its outer layers. The star’s companion, according to NASA scientists, must have impacted the formation of the rings, coming very close to the star at the time of maximum loss of material, molding the shape into rings instead of a spherical shape.
A Nebula in Motion for Millennia
“Before Webb, we weren’t able to detect most of this material, let alone observe it so clearly,” explained Mike Ressler, project scientist for Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
NGC 1514, which belongs to the Taurus constellation and is approximately 1,500 light-years from Earth, has been changing at least 4,000 years and will keep doing so for millennia to come.
