He James Webb again surprises with fascinating images of the Universe. During its latest milestone, the telescope sent a series images of the Ring Nebula, with unprecedented resolution. Through its power, unprecedented details of this formation, formed from the remains of a decaying star, can now be accessed.
new observations of the Ring Nebula They were conducted by scientists from NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency. “When we saw these images, we were amazed at the amount of detail they contained,” Roger Wesson, a Cardiff University researcher who took part in the study, said in a statement.
The donut-shaped nebula, also known as Messier 57 and NGC 6720, is located about 2,500 light-years from Earth. This is a relatively small distance by space standards. Despite this, its presence has attracted both specialists and amateur astronomers, who, under certain conditions, can observe it in our sky with conventional telescopes.
The Ring Nebula ‘Naked’ by the James Webb Telescope
Pictures taken by the Advanced Telescope show never-before-seen details of the Ring Nebula. This step is not trivial, given that this formation is discovered almost 250 years ago.
As we have already noted, the breakthrough was due to “James Webb”, which began work about a year ago at a distance of about 1.6 million kilometers from the Earth. Thanks to infrared sensors, this equipment shows aspects that are beyond the capabilities of our eyes and previously available scientific instruments, even the most powerful ones.
In the same order as mentioned spaceThe now published images of the Ring Nebula have unprecedented resolution and spectral sensitivity. With the new data, the internal filamentous structure can be observed in addition to looking at the outer regions, where ten concentric arcs can be seen.
Unpublished details of Messier 57 Nebula
“These arcs must have formed about every 280 years as the central star sheds its outer layers. When one star becomes a planetary nebula, we do not know of any process that takes such a period of time. Instead, these rings suggest that there must be a companion star in the system. It orbits as far from the center as Pluto does from our Sun,” Wesson said.
Otherwise, at the first magnification, the center of the Ring Nebula appears empty. However, experts note that it is littered with a material of lower density, which spreads to the sides. In this regard, the European Space Agency indicates that a shape similar to the shape of a ball inserted into a central hole is created in this space.
“No other telescope has the sensitivity and resolution to detect these subtle effects.”, emphasized a specialist from the University of Wales. The achievements are as obvious as they are relevant: the discovery of this species was impossible with the help of the Hubble Space Telescope. This equipment has been in operation for more than three decades and is capable of observing only in visible and ultraviolet light.
5 Nebula Facts Photographed by James Webb
- The Ring Nebula is located in Lyra, a small constellation dominated by the largest star, Vega.
- It was discovered in 1779 by the French astronomer Charles Messier, who, along with colleagues, stumbled upon it while following the trajectory of a comet in this constellation.
- This is one of the most famous nebulae.: It is often used as an example of this kind of objects in space.
- It has an inclination of 30 degrees relative to its axis; and hence it follows that it approaches the earth gradually.
- The main ring is colorful: it is made up of gas ejected by the dying star at its center, which is about to become a white dwarf (the final stage of evolution).
Finally, it should be mentioned that new images of the Ring Nebula They are different from those that were revealed long ago. On this occasion, scientists from the JWST Ring Nebula Project detailed new discoveries about this formation. In this case, they also used the NIRCam telescope instrument, a near-infrared camera.
Source: Hiper Textual
