{"id":243494,"date":"2026-01-21T01:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T01:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/243494\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T01:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T01:15:08","slug":"webb-reveals-a-planetary-nebula-with-phenomenal-clarity-and-it-is-spectacular","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/243494\/","title":{"rendered":"Webb reveals a planetary nebula with phenomenal clarity, and it is spectacular"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Helix Nebula is one of the most well-known and commonly photographed planetary nebulae because it resembles the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit-1000w,f_auto,q_auto:best\/streams\/2012\/February\/120220\/61361-6330284.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Eye of Sauron<\/a>.\u201d It is also one of the closest bright nebulae to Earth, located approximately 655 light-years from our Solar System.<\/p>\n<p>You may not know what this particular nebula looks like when reading its name, but the Hubble Space Telescope has taken some iconic images of it over the years. And almost certainly, you\u2019ll recognize a photograph of the Helix Nebula, shown below.<\/p>\n<p>Like many objects in astronomy, planetary nebulae have a confusing name, since they are formed not by planets but by stars like our own Sun, though a little larger. Near the end of their lives, these stars shed large amounts of gas in an expanding shell that, however briefly in cosmological time, put on a grand show.<\/p>\n<p>            <a class=\"cursor-zoom-in\" data-pswp-width=\"960\" data-pswp-height=\"1035\" data-cropped=\"false\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/NGC7293_2004.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" data-pswp-><br \/>\n              <img width=\"960\" height=\"1035\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/NGC7293_2004.jpg\" class=\"fullwidth full\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"  \/><br \/>\n            <\/a><\/p>\n<p>              This is one of the Hubble Space Telescope\u2019s iconic images of the Helix Nebula<\/p>\n<p>\n                  Credit:<br \/>\n                                      NASA\n                                  <\/p>\n<p>\n      This is one of the Hubble Space Telescope\u2019s iconic images of the Helix Nebula<\/p>\n<p>          Credit:<\/p>\n<p>          NASA<\/p>\n<p>Now the James Webb Space Telescope has turned its sights on the Helix Nebula, and, oh my, does it have a story to tell. NASA <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/missions\/webb\/intricacies-of-helix-nebula-revealed-with-nasas-webb\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">released the new images<\/a> of the nebula on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>In this image, there are vibrant pillars of gas along the inner region of the nebula\u2019s expanding shell of gas. According to the space agency, this is what we\u2019re seeing:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Helix Nebula is one of the most well-known and commonly photographed planetary nebulae because it resembles the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":["post-243494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}