![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/02.tarantula1NIRcam-d466b88.jpg\")
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team<\/p>\nThe James Webb Space Telescope has seen a strange-looking object in space that bears a resemblance to an enormous brain in a jar.<\/p>\n
It’s known as the Exposed Cranium Nebula, and is being created by an ageing star that’s blowing out cosmic gas and dust into space.<\/p>\n
This process has produced a huge cosmic cloud that looks like one of the strangest things we’ve ever seen in the Universe.<\/p>\n
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team<\/p>\n
Exploring the Exposed Cranium<\/p>\n
The James Webb Space Telescope’s amazing infrared vision has revealed the ‘brain’ inside the nebula.<\/p>\n
This object, officially named PMR 1, is created by an aging star that’s expelling its outer layers.<\/p>\n
Nebula PMR 1 is a cloud of gas and dust that Webb has captured in both near- and mid-infrared light, using its two main science instruments.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/webb-cranium-nebula-miri.jpg\")
A dying star known as the Exposed Cranium Nebula, or PMR 1, as seen by the James Webb Space Telescope’s MIRI instrument. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)<\/p>\n
Astronomers say the nebula seems to have distinct regions that reveal different phases of its evolution.<\/p>\n
First, an outer shell of gas that was ejected into space consists mostly of hydrogen, while an intricately-structured inner cloud contains a mix of different gases.<\/p>\n
Both Webb\u2019s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) reveal a dark lane running through the middle of the nebula, making it look like the left and right hemispheres of a brain.<\/p>\n
The Webb Telescope reveals this lane could be caused by an outburst or outflow from the central star, which often materialises as twin jets bursting outwards from a star in opposite directions.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/webb-cranium-nebula-nircam.jpg\")
A dying star known as the Exposed Cranium Nebula, or PMR 1, as seen by the James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam instrument. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)<\/p>\n
At the top of the nebula in Webb\u2019s image, it looks like inner gas is being ejected outward.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Astronomers say they’ve still got a lot to learn about the Exposed Cranium Nebula, but they know it’s being produced by a star approaching the end of its life.<\/p>\n
As the star begins to run out of fuel, it expels its outer layers into space. This material forms the ingredients out of which new stars may one day be born.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
If it\u2019s massive enough, the star will eventually explode in a supernova<\/a>.<\/p>\n