Astronomers have been given a new and incredibly detailed look at a very familiar astronomical object thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The new JWST image shows the Helix Nebula, the ring-like structure of which has led to the nickname the Eye of God.
The Helix Nebula is composed of stellar material shrugged off by a dying star as its outer layers were blasted away and its core collapsed to form a dense stellar remnant called a white dwarf. White dwarfs are the type of stellar corpses that are left behind when stars with similar masses as the sun run out of hydrogen in their cores and can no longer generate the energy to support themselves against the inward push of their own gravity. The remains that surround them are referred to as "planetary nebulas," even though they have nothing to do with planets at all.
That means that this intricate view of the Helix Nebula, located some 650 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Aquarius, gives scientists a hint of what is to come for our own star when it exhausts its hydrogen fuel in around 5 billion years. So, while this familiar sight for astronomers may look like a lava lamp in these images, it may actually serve as a crystal ball, foretelling doom for our solar system.
The Helix Nebula, also known as NGC 7293 or Caldwell 63, was first discovered by German astronomer Karl Ludwig Harding prior to 1824. It is one of the closest and brightest planetary nebulas that can be seen from Earth.
Since then, the Helix Nebula has been imaged by a vast array of telescopes, including the Hubble Space Telescope, with the JWST joining the fray with an infrared image courtesy of its Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam).
The image clearly traces winds of blisteringly hot gas emerging from the vicinity of the white dwarf stellar remnant at the heart of the Helix Nebula as they slam into outer shells of previously shed cold gas and dust. This demonstrates a sharp transition between the hot gas of this system and its coolest counterpart.
Not visible in the JWST image is the smoldering white dwarf in the center of the Helix Nebula, but astronomers can see the effect of the radiation it emits as it lights close surrounding gas, heating it and causing it to be ionized.
Further out from the stellar remnant are dust pockets of cold molecular hydrogen, in which conditions are just right for the formation of complex molecules. These could one day become the building blocks of new planets, and perhaps even life.Thus, perhaps this cosmic crystal ball also offers a look backwards billions of years into the past before the solar system took shape around our infant sun.
