On Tuesday, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) provided the world with new images of the famous Ring Nebula, an expanding envelope of gas surrounding a dying star about 2,250 light-years from Earth. Although the nebula has been captured many times, the James Webb Space Telescope is revealing new details. Unlike its predecessor, Hubble, the space telescope can see through gas and dust using its sensitive infrared cameras.

To bring out the details and distinguish the different materials, the astronomers colored the images. Small white balls can be seen in the nebula, which are clumps of hydrogen about the size of Earth. The inner region consists of extremely hot gas. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are emitted from the shell. They are complex carbon particles that “we did not expect to form in the ring nebula.” says Roger Wesson of Cardiff University.

“The amazing detail is about a dozen regularly spaced arcs,” Wesson says. Astronomers believe that these arcs are caused by interactions with another star orbiting the central star. “No other telescope has had the sensitivity and spatial resolution to detect this subtle effect.”

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20 to 30 kilometers per second

As the star’s core – which is thought to have the same mass as the Sun – dies slowly, it expels its outer layers of ionized gas and dust. The Ring Nebula, also called M57, looks like a distorted donut about a light-year in diameter and is expanding at a speed of 20 to 30 kilometers per second. It is tilted toward Earth so astronomers can see the ring facing forward.

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Astronomers will continue to study data from the James Webb Space Telescope. JWST is the largest and most powerful space telescope ever built and is the result of collaboration between the United States (NASA), Europe (ESA), and Canada (CSA).