HEAVENLY HALO

Get Lost in the Hypnotic Glow of the Ring Nebula—Thanks to NASA’s Webb Telescope

Who knew the death of a star could be so joyous to watch?

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope continues to deliver the goods we were promised. On Thursday the agency released photos the telescope took of the Ring Nebula, an object located 2,200 light-years away. The photo shows the nebula oozing with a hypnotic green glow, adorned by an expanse of wispy purple clouds forming a ring. Nebulas are the glowing remains of dead stars, and the Ring Nebula in particular shows the aftermath of a white dwarf star that imploded billions of years ago. By studying objects like these, NASA hopes to know more about the life cycle of stars and what future of the solar system might look like. But that won’t be for several billion years from now—long after we’re dead, of course. “We are witnessing the final chapters of a star’s life, a preview of the sun’s distant future so to speak, and JWST’s observations have opened a new window into understanding these awe-inspiring cosmic events,” University College London astronomer Mike Barlow said in a statement. “We can use the Ring Nebula as our laboratory to study how planetary nebulae form and evolve.”