FILE - This new image of a portion of the Helix Nebula from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope highlights comet-like knots, fierce stellar winds, and layers of gas shed off by a dying star interacting with its surrounding environment. ( NASA, ESA, CSA …
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured mesmerizing new images of the Helix Nebula.
Stunning detail of Helix Nebula
With the use of Webb’s NIRCAm, pillars of what look like comets with long tails line the inner region of expanding gas inside the nebula, NASA said. It almost looks similar to the zoomed-in iris of the human eye.
The Helix Nebula is made up of hot gas from a dying star. Scientists believe this is what will eventually happen to our sun, but not for millions of years.
When zoomed out, a white dwarf star can be seen to the right of the heart of the nebula. The dwarf is the core that was left behind after the star died, NASA said.
Though images of this nebula have been captured before, this new image shows details of this celestial body in stunning detail.
About the Helix Nebula
Dig deeper:
The Helix Nebula is located 650 light-years away from Earth.
It sits in the constellation of Aquarius and its appearance is often compared to the Eye of Sauron from "Lord of the Rings."
The Source: Information for this article was taken from NASA’s website. This story was reported from San Jose.