{"id":115554,"date":"2025-08-28T05:51:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T05:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/115554\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T05:51:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T05:51:08","slug":"an-unprecedented-look-into-a-butterfly-nebula-from-the-james-webb-telescope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/115554\/","title":{"rendered":"An unprecedented look into a butterfly nebula from the James Webb Telescope"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scientists say the James Webb Space Telescope has captured<\/a> an unprecedented look inside a butterfly nebula, revealing matter around a dying star.<\/p>\n

The international space community, consisting of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, released the new imagery Wednesday, which exposed complex features in the heart of NGC 6302, located about 3,400 light-years away from Earth in the constellation known as Scorpius.<\/p>\n

The vast region of gases and dust was previously studied by NASA\u2019s Hubble Space Telescope<\/a>, but scientists say Webb\u2019s high-resolution imagery offers the clearest portrait yet of complex layers.<\/p>\n

Planetary nebulae form when giant stars exhaust their fuel and shed their outer layers, leaving behind a hot core that illuminates the gas and dust surrounding it.<\/p>\n

A dense band of dust acts as the \u201cbody\u201d of the butterfly, forming a doughnut-shaped figure that blocks out light and gives the nebula its unusual shape.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlanetary nebulae are among the most beautiful and most elusive creatures in the cosmic zoo,\u201d the ESA said. <\/p>\n

Planetary nebulae form when giant stars exhaust their fuel and shed their outer layers, leaving behind a hot core that illuminates the gas and dust surrounding it. NASA<\/p>\n

\u201cThese nebulae form when stars with masses between about 0.8 and 8 times the mass of the Sun shed most of their mass at the end of their lives. The planetary nebula phase is fleeting, lasting only about 20,000 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The agency said for the first time, astronomers were able to locate the nebula\u2019s hidden central star through the thick dust.<\/p>\n

Researchers estimated the temperature around the star to be around 220,000 Kelvin, making it one of the hottest known stars in our galaxy.<\/p>\n

In this photo provided by NASA, technicians lift the mirror of the James Webb Space Telescope using a crane, April 13, 2017, at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. AP<\/p>\n

Scientists also noted that carbon-based molecules were also observed, which was unexpected as those particles are typically found in exhaust from vehicles and fires.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the location of the PAHs [ polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons], the research team suspects that these molecules form when a \u2018bubble\u2019 of wind from the central star bursts into the gas that surrounds it. This may be the first-ever evidence of PAHs forming in a oxygen-rich planetary nebula, providing an important glimpse into the details of how these molecules form,\u201d scientists stated.<\/p>\n

In previous imagery, NASA said red hues were thought to have originated from ionized nitrogen and hydrogen, while\u00a0white patches were from ionized sulfur.<\/p>\n

Scientists also noted that carbon-based molecules were also observed. NASA<\/p>\n

The most visual phase of the nebula is expected to last some 20,000 years, before the gases become too dispersed to be visible from telescopes.<\/p>\n

The $10 billion telescope launched in 2021 and is the most powerful observatory ever to operate in space.<\/p>\n

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NASA believes the James Webb Space Telescope will easily surpass its expected 10-year lifespan and will likely operate for decades.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scientists say the James Webb Space Telescope has captured an unprecedented look inside a butterfly nebula, revealing matter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[12654,718,79,780,193,1507],"class_list":["post-115554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-hubble-space-telescope","tag-nasa","tag-science","tag-solar-system","tag-space","tag-stars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}