Though we all have differences, there’s one commonality that has prevailed for all of humanity: we are all floating on a rock, flying through outer space at over a million miles an hour.
Thanks to the rapid advancement of technology in the past century, we can observe much more of the universe than we ever thought possible.
The scale and sheer size of the universe make it impossible to truly learn everything, but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.
Here's what's happening in space this week.
The James Webb Space Telescope has pleasantly surprised astronomers yet again with its latest image of the Ring Nebula, a well-known celestial object that is considered a classic example of a planetary nebula.
The Ring Nebula, much like Webb's first capture of the Southern Ring Nebula, showcases the final stages of the end of a star's life. According to Roger Wesson of Cardiff University, the nebulas relatively close proximity to us made it an obvious target for the Webb Telescope.
“The Ring Nebula is an ideal target to unravel some of the mysteries of planetary nebulae. It is nearby, approximately 2,200 light-years away, and bright – visible with binoculars on a clear summer evening from the northern hemisphere and much of the southern," he said in a statement.
Wesson is part of an international group of experts on planetary nebulae and related objects known as ESSENcE (Evolved StarS and their Nebulae in the JWST Era).
Webb's new image of the massive Ring Nebula, also known as Messier 57, captured an extraordinary amount of detail, leaving those who initially saw the image in awe.
“When we first saw the images, we were stunned by the amount of detail in them. The bright ring that gives the nebula its name is composed of about 20,000 individual clumps of dense molecular hydrogen gas, each of them about as massive as the Earth," Wesson said.
We now have images of the Ring Nebula's intricate structure in unprecedented detail; however, our perspective and understanding of these monstrous celestial bodies has drastically shifted over the years.
“Planetary nebulae were once thought to be simple, round objects with a single dying star at the center. They were named for their fuzzy, planet-like appearance through small telescopes. Only a few thousand years ago, that star was still a red giant that was shedding most of its mass," Wesson said.
"Modern observations, though, show that most planetary nebulae display breathtaking complexity. It begs the question: how does a spherical star create such intricate and delicate non-spherical structures?"
Thanks to Webb's advanced technology and infrared capabilities, researchers were able to study the nebula like never before. They even found features within the nebula that previous telescopes, like Hubble, weren't able to see.
“Our MIRI images provided us with the sharpest and clearest view yet of the faint molecular halo outside the bright ring. A surprising revelation was the presence of up to ten regularly-spaced, concentric features within this faint halo. These arcs must have formed about every 280 years as the central star was shedding its outer layers," Wesson added.
According to NASA, the ten concentric arcs beyond the outer edge of the main ring are formed by the interaction between the nebula's central star and a low-mass companion orbiting the nebula at "a distance comparable to that between the Earth and Pluto."
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