{"id":476933,"date":"2026-03-15T12:36:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T12:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/476933\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T12:36:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T12:36:19","slug":"this-epic-nebula-looks-like-a-giant-brain-floating-in-space-sciencealert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/476933\/","title":{"rendered":"This Epic Nebula Looks Like a Giant Brain Floating in Space : ScienceAlert"},"content":{"rendered":"

JWST has captured<\/a> one of its most eerily beautiful images yet: A glowing cloud of gas and dust that resembles a giant brain in a transparent skull, suspended in space.<\/p>\n

Officially, its name is PMR 1 \u2013 a planetary nebula billowing outwards, the convulsive throes of a star in the final stages of its life. However, its resemblance to human anatomy has earned it a gruesome nickname: the Exposed Cranium nebula.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Exposed Cranium nebula in mid-infrared wavelengths. (NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale<\/a>)<\/p>\n

JWST’s unique infrared vision has captured intricate folds and filaments \u2013 as well as a dark, central lane running vertically across the object, creating the illusion of giant cerebral hemispheres.<\/p>\n

Actually, PMR 1 is something of a mystery. We’ve known about its existence for nearly 30 years now; it’s about 5,000 light-years away<\/a>, in the constellation of Vela<\/a>, and it measures about 3.2 light-years across<\/a> \u2013 similar in size to our Solar System as measured to the outer edge of the Oort Cloud<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Exposed Cranium nebula in near-infrared wavelengths. (NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Astronomers have determined that the roiling material is being expelled by a star nearing the end of its life that is rapidly losing mass, spewing out what appear to be jets from opposite sides to create the vertical lane.<\/p>\n

But we don’t know what sort of star it is. According to a 2001 paper<\/a>, its spectrum matches that of a Wolf-Rayet star<\/a> \u2013 very massive, very hot, and very luminous stars at the end of their main-sequence lifespans.<\/p>\n

\"Subscribe<\/a><\/p>\n

The Wolf-Rayet stage involves the loss of mass at a very high rate, transported by wild stellar winds<\/a> and driven by radiation pressure<\/a>. The result<\/a> is some of the most spectacularly beautiful<\/a> stellar death scenes in the Universe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, PMR 1’s star is unlikely to be one of these tempestuous titans. Other signs suggest a relatively small, Sun-like star, which means it’s just going to shake its outer layers off while the core settles into a white dwarf.<\/p>\n

Related: We Just Got a Glimpse of What Will Happen When The Sun Finally Dies<\/a><\/p>\n

If the spectrum truly matches a Wolf-Rayet type, it may belong to a rare class of planetary nebula central stars that resemble massive Wolf-Rayet stars<\/a>, but are actually the exposed cores of Sun-like stars on their way to becoming white dwarfs.<\/p>\n

Or maybe it’s just a lost Brain Spawn that can’t find its way back to the Infosphere<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JWST has captured one of its most eerily beautiful images yet: A glowing cloud of gas and dust…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[249,90,416,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-476933","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-msft-content","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-space","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}