The Cranium Nebula

 

 
NASA’s James Webb Telescope images of the Cranium Nebula 
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

It looks like a brain, complete with what appear to be left and right hemispheres. It is actually a dying star blowing off a shell of gas, and within that shell, a cloud of various gases. The dark lane that divides the sides of the “brain” may be related to an outflow from the central star.

In near-infrared, the nebula’s outer bubble has a white edge and its inner clouds are orange, with a distinct dark lane cutting vertically through the center. Stars and background galaxies appear around the nebula and through the outer bubble.

What’s next for this star will depend on its mass, which is yet undetermined. If it is a high-mass star, it will explode in a supernova. If it’s less massive and more Sun-like, it’ll keep shedding layers until only its core remains as a dense white dwarf star.

Read more about this nebula at science.nasa.gov...

Peering Into the Pillars of Creation

The Eagle Nebula (M16): Peering Into the Pillars of Creation
(A nearby star-forming region about 7,000 light-years from Earth.), Image: Smithsonian Institution.

A composite image of the Eagle Nebula (M16) with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope penetrates the dark columns of gas and dust to reveal how much star formation is happening there. The Chandra data (red, green, and blue represent low, medium, and high-energy X-rays respectively) show very few X-ray sources in the so-called "Pillars of Creation" themselves. This indicates that star formation peaked in this region several million years ago.