Provided by European Space Agency/James Webb Space Telescope, NASA, Canadian Space Agency, and Professor J.H. Kastner, Rochester Institute of Technology, USA
There's a particularly bright star in the center. From there, a pair of elliptical gas clouds extend in opposite directions. This is the planetary nebula "NGC6537" located in Sagittarius. As its nickname "Red Spider Nebula" suggests, it looks like a spider. Could it be spinning a web in space, capturing and feeding on glowing stars?
A planetary nebula is a celestial object where an aging, dying star is transforming from a red giant to a white dwarf. This image was captured in near-infrared light by the James Webb Space Telescope, a joint project of the United States, Europe, and Canada, and was newly released by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and others. In the most detailed view ever obtained, the light emitted by hydrogen molecules appears as the spider's legs.
The name 'James Webb' honors NASA's second administrator, who directed the Apollo program and other initiatives in the 1960s. The spelling is "Webb," slightly different from a spider's "web," but... one could voice the witty interpretation that the web has caught the spider.
Original article was provided by the Science Portal and has been translated by Science Japan.