![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/noirlab2613a-header-800x614.jpg\")
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NOIRLab and the National Science Foundation\u2019s Gemini North telescope, located on Maunakea in Hawai\u2019i, captured a mesmerizing photo of NGC 1514, nicknamed the Crystal Ball Nebula. It looks a lot different than the photo the James Webb Space Telescope captured last year, and frankly, unlike nearly any other space photo. <\/p>\n
The Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph<\/a> (GMOS) on the Gemini North telescope captured this photo of the Crystal Ball Nebula in May, revealing it in exceptional detail. <\/p>\n Compare it to the photo captured by the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) last year, shown below. In that mid-infrared image, the nebula\u2019s rings are clearly captured, and a visible pink central region is present. <\/p>\n These same rings that Webb photographed are not really visible in Gemini\u2019s new photo at all. The colors are entirely different because the GMOS operates at different wavelengths of light than JWST\u2019s MIRI. Further, the interstellar material, cosmic dust, and gas that MIRI could see through, Gemini cannot. <\/p>\n What both images capture, although in different ways, is the Crystal Ball Nebula\u2019s once-mysterious core. When German-British astronomer William Herschel discovered NGC 1514 way back in 1790, it just looked like a bright sphere, or planet, hence why he called these cosmic objects \u201cplanetary nebulae.\u201d As NOIRLab notes, planetary nebulae and planets are entirely unrelated. <\/p>\n Before he discovered NGC 1514, Herschel, limited by the instruments and astrophysics of the day, believed that nebulae were collections of stars too far away to see distinctly. That\u2019s not true, as he realized the following year. He noted that the distinctly bright point at the heart of NGC 1514 suggested it was instead a single star, not a distant group. <\/p>\n However, although planetary nebulae result from low- or intermediate-mass stars ejecting their outer layers as they approach death, NGC 1514 actually contains two stars. Herschel couldn\u2019t see it in the 18th century, limited by the optics of the day, but NGC 1514\u2019s core features a pair of stars that orbit each other every nine years. This is the longest known orbital period for binary stars within any known planetary nebulae in the Universe. <\/p>\n That\u2019s not the only special thing about NGC 1514. Not only does it have uniquely long-orbiting binary stars, but it is also lumpy. Planetary nebulae are typically smooth and spherical, not asymmetrical and clumpy. <\/p>\n \u201cScientists believe that one of these stars, which was once several times more massive than our Sun, released its outer layers while in the throes of death. As the progenitor star and its binary companion orbit each other, they mold the expanding shell of gas with their strong, asymmetrical winds, forming the lumpy layers we see today,\u201d NOIRLab explains<\/a>. <\/p>\n Image credits: International Gemini Observatory\/NOIRLab\/NSF\/AURA | Image Processing: J. Miller & M. Rodriguez (International Gemini Observatory\/NSF NOIRLab), T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage\/NSF NOIRLab), D. de Martin & M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NOIRLab and the National Science Foundation\u2019s Gemini North telescope, located on Maunakea in Hawai\u2019i, captured a mesmerizing photo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[2463,224703,2587,85,46,71246,39213,10714,224704,96234,93550,224705,141,145,6801],"class_list":["post-485486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-gemini","tag-gemininorth","tag-hawaii","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-jameswebbspacetelescope","tag-jwst","tag-nebula","tag-ngc1514","tag-noirlab","tag-nsf","tag-planetarynebulae","tag-science","tag-space","tag-webb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Colorful](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Full-Res-For-Print-6-800x787.jpg\")
NGC 1514 \u2014 Webb (MIRI) | NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Michael Ressler (NASA-JPL), David Jones (IAC) <\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/iotw2506a-copy-800x523.jpg\")
Gemini North | Image credits: International Gemini Observatory\/NOIRLab\/NSF\/AURA\/T. Matsopoulos <\/p>\n