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Huge waves are sculpted in this two-lobed nebula called the Red Spider Nebula, located some 3,000 light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius. This warm planetary nebula harbors one of the hottest stars known and its powerful stellar winds generate waves 100 billion kilometers (62.4 billion miles) high. The waves are caused by supersonic shocks, formed when the local gas is compressed and heated in front of the rapidly expanding lobes. The atoms caught in the shock emit the spectacular radiation seen in this image.
Huge waves are sculpted in this two-lobed nebula some 3000 light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius. This warm planetary nebula harbours one of the hottest stars known and its powerful stellar winds generate waves 100 billion kilometres high. The waves are caused by supersonic shocks, formed when the local gas is compressed and heated in front of the rapidly expanding lobes. The atoms caught in the shock emit the spectacular radiation seen in this image.
This new NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month features a cosmic creepy-crawly called NGC 6537 – the Red Spider Nebula. Using its Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam), Webb has revealed never-before-seen details in this picturesque planetary nebula with a rich backdrop of thousands of stars.
Planetary nebulae like the Red Spider Nebula form when ordinary stars like the Sun reach the end of their lives. After ballooning into cool red giants, these stars shed their outer layers and cast them into space, exposing their white-hot cores. Ultraviolet light from the central star ionises the cast-off material, causing it to glow. The planetary nebula phase of a star’s life is as fleeting as it is beautiful, lasting only a few tens of thousands of years.
The central star of the Red Spider Nebula is visible in this image, glowing just brighter than the webs of dusty gas that surround it. The surprising nature of the nebula’s tremendously hot and luminous central star has been revealed by Webb’s NIRCam. In optical-wavelength images, such as from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, the star appears faint and blue. But in the NIRCam images, it shows up as red: thanks to its sensitive near-infrared capabilities, Webb has revealed a shroud of hot dust surrounding the central star. This hot dust likely orbits the central star, in a disc structure.
Though only a single star is visible in the Red Spider’s heart, a hidden companion star may lurk there as well. A stellar companion could explain the nebula’s shape, including its characteristic narrow waist and wide outflows. This hourglass shape is seen in other planetary nebulae such as the Butterfly Nebula, which Webb also recently observed.
Webb’s new view of the Red Spider Nebula reveals for the first time the full extent of the nebula’s outstretched lobes, which form the ‘legs’ of the spider. These lobes, shown in blue, are traced by light emitted from H2 molecules, which contain two hydrogen atoms bonded together. Stretching over the entirety of NIRCam’s field of view, these lobes are shown to be closed, bubble-like structures that each extend about three light-years. Outflowing gas from the centre of the nebula has inflated these massive bubbles over thousands of years.
Gas is also actively jetting out from the nebula’s centre, as these new Webb observations show. An elongated purple ‘S’ shape centred on the heart of the nebula follows the light from ionised iron atoms. This feature marks where a fast-moving jet has emerged from near the nebula’s central star and collided with material that was previously cast away by the star, sculpting the rippling structure of the nebula seen today.
The observations used to create this image come from Webb GO programme #4571 (PI: J. Kastner), which aims to understand how bipolar planetary nebulae like the Red Spider Nebula are shaped by the outflows and jets that emerge from the stars at their cores.
[Image Description: A large planetary nebula. The nebula’s central star is hidden by a blotchy pinkish cloud of dust. A strong red light radiates from this area, illuminating the nearby dust. Two large loops extend diagonally away from the centre, formed of thin ridges of molecular gas, here coloured blue. They stretch out to the corners of the view. A huge number of bright, whitish stars cover the background, also easily visible through the thin dust layers.]
Credits: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. H. Kastner (Rochester Institute of Technology); CC BY 4.0
This new annotated NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month features a cosmic creepy-crawly called NGC 6537 — the Red Spider Nebula. Using its Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam), Webb has revealed never-before-seen details in this picturesque planetary nebula with a rich backdrop of thousands of stars.
Planetary nebulae like the Red Spider Nebula form when ordinary stars like the Sun reach the end of their lives. After ballooning into cool red giants, these stars shed their outer layers and cast them into space, exposing their white-hot cores. Ultraviolet light from the central star ionises the cast-off material, causing it to glow. The planetary nebula phase of a star’s life is as fleeting as it is beautiful, lasting only a few tens of thousands of years.
Starting at the centre, this image indicates the location of the planetary nebula’s central star, which has a scorching temperature of 160 000 K. Surrounding this dying star is a doughnut-shaped torus of gas and dust, the innermost portion of which has been ionised by the fierce ultraviolet radiation from the superheated central star. The remainder of the torus, farther from the star, is much colder and is slowly expanding outward.
The rumpled appearance of the gas that forms the spider’s ‘legs’ comes from the interaction between outflows that emerge from opposite sides of the star and material that is swept up by the outflowing gas, creating shock waves. Webb’s view reveals for the first time the full extent of the nebula’s outstretched lobes.
These lobes, shown in blue, are traced by light emitted from H2 molecules, which contain two hydrogen atoms bonded together. Stretching over the entirety of NIRCam’s field of view, these lobes are shown to be closed, bubble-like structures that each extend about 3 light-years. Outflowing gas from the centre of the nebula has inflated these massive bubbles over thousands of years.
Tracing out an elongated purple ‘S’ shape, ionised iron atoms mark where a jet has emerged from the vicinity of the central star and collided with material that was cast off by the star previously.
The observations used to create this image come from Webb GO programme #4571 (PI: J. Kastner) as part of a joint Chandra-JWST observing programme, which aims to understand how bipolar planetary nebulae like the Red Spider Nebula are shaped by the outflows and jets that emerge from the stars at their cores..
[Image Description: The central region of a planetary nebula is shown in a box. Labels indicate “Shock waves”, “Outflow collisions”, and an “Ionised jet” in the dust on both sides of the nebula. Close to the centre, “Dusty torus” and “Ionised torus” are marked. In the very middle, a faint dot inside a blotchy pink cloud is labelled “Dying star”. Bright stars surround the nebula and can be seen through the dust layers.]
Credits: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. H. Kastner (Rochester Institute of Technology); CC BY 4.0
Huge waves are sculpted in this two-lobed nebula called the Red Spider Nebula (or NGC 6537), located some 3,000 light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius. This warm planetary nebula harbors one of the hottest stars known, and the star's powerful stellar winds generate waves 100 billion kilometers (62.4 billion miles) high. The waves are caused by supersonic shocks, formed when the local gas is compressed and heated in front of the rapidly expanding lobes. The atoms caught in the shock emit the spectacular radiation seen in this image.
For more information, visit: spacetelescope.org/images/heic0109a/
Credit: ESA/Garrelt Mellema (Leiden University, the Netherlands)
Huge waves are sculpted in this two-lobed nebula some 3000 light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius. This warm planetary nebula harbours one of the hottest stars known and its powerful stellar winds generate waves 100 billion kilometres high. The waves are caused by supersonic shocks, formed when the local gas is compressed and heated in front of the rapidly expanding lobes. The atoms caught in the shock emit the spectacular radiation seen in this image.
You may have already seen this several times before since it has already been very well processed by others so I felt there was little for me to contribute. At this point I've done so many planetary nebulas that I feel the need to do them all just to have a complete collection.
I spent many moments simply gazing into the center and contemplating its structure. The processing is slightly deceptive in that area. The center has been considerably darkened to allow for structural details to not be blown out. I didn't think I was going to do it when I started with this but I ended up trying it just to see how I'd do and ended up keeping it. That center blob which appears slightly greenish is actually a cloud in front of a very bright star. It's exactly as if you were looking up at our own sun with a small cloud just occluding it, which is to say it won't immediately burn your retinas but it's still unbearably bright.
Red: hst_06502_04_wfpc2_f673n_wf_sci + hst_06502_04_wfpc2_f658n_wf_sci
Green: hst_06502_04_wfpc2_f656n_wf_sci + hst_06502_04_wfpc2_f631n_wf_sci
Blue: hst_06502_04_wfpc2_f502n_wf_sci
North is NOT up.
Huge waves are sculpted in this two-lobed nebula some 3000 light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius. This warm planetary nebula harbours one of the hottest stars known and its powerful stellar winds generate waves 100 billion kilometres high. The waves are caused by supersonic shocks, formed when the local gas is compressed and heated in front of the rapidly expanding lobes. The atoms caught in the shock emit the spectacular radiation seen in this image.
Credit: ESA & Garrelt Mellema (Leiden University, the Netherlands)
The New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars (abbreviated as NGC) is a catalogue of deep-sky objects compiled by John Louis Emil Dreyer in 1888 as a new version of John Herschel's General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars. The NGC contains 7,840 objects, known as the NGC objects. It is one of the largest comprehensive catalogues, as it includes all types of deep space objects and is not confined to, for example, galaxies. Dreyer also published two supplements to the NGC in 1895 and 1908, known as the Index Catalogues, describing a further 5,386 astronomical objects.
Huge waves are sculpted in this two-lobed nebula some 3000 light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius. This warm planetary nebula harbours one of the hottest stars known and its powerful stellar winds generate waves 100 billion kilometres high. The waves are caused by supersonic shocks, formed when the local gas is compressed and heated in front of the rapidly expanding lobes. The atoms caught in the shock emit the spectacular radiation seen in this image.
Huge waves are sculpted in this two-lobed nebula some 3000 light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius. This warm planetary nebula harbours one of the hottest stars known and its powerful stellar winds generate waves 100 billion kilometres high. The waves are caused by supersonic shocks, formed when the local gas is compressed and heated in front of the rapidly expanding lobes. The atoms caught in the shock emit the spectacular radiation seen in this image.
Huge waves are sculpted in this two-lobed nebula some 3000 light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius. This warm planetary nebula harbours one of the hottest stars known and its powerful stellar winds generate waves 100 billion kilometres high. The waves are caused by supersonic shocks, formed when the local gas is compressed and heated in front of the rapidly expanding lobes. The atoms caught in the shock emit the spectacular radiation seen in this image.
Credit:
ESA & Garrelt Mellema (Leiden University, the Netherlands)
Huge waves are sculpted in this two-lobed nebula some 3000 light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius. This warm planetary nebula harbours one of the hottest stars known and its powerful stellar winds generate waves 100 billion kilometres high. The waves are caused by supersonic shocks, formed when the local gas is compressed and heated in front of the rapidly expanding lobes. The atoms caught in the shock emit the spectacular radiation seen in this image.
Huge waves are sculpted in this two-lobed nebula some 3000 light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius. This warm planetary nebula harbours one of the hottest stars known and its powerful stellar winds generate waves 100 billion kilometres high. The waves are caused by supersonic shocks, formed when the local gas is compressed and heated in front of the rapidly expanding lobes. The atoms caught in the shock emit the spectacular radiation seen in this image.
Huge waves are sculpted in this two-lobed nebula some 3000 light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius. This warm planetary nebula harbours one of the hottest stars known and its powerful stellar winds generate waves 100 billion kilometres high. The waves are caused by supersonic shocks, formed when the local gas is compressed and heated in front of the rapidly expanding lobes. The atoms caught in the shock emit the spectacular radiation seen in this image.
Hubble (2001-07-24) NGC 6537, Red Spider Nebula (Hubble) - The Red Spider Nebula, surfing in Sagittarius - not for the faint-hearted!
NGC6537 ou nebulosa da aranha vermelha é uma nebulosa planetária localizada a cerca de 4.000 anos-luz da Terra na constelação de Sagitário, próximo à direção do centro galáctico e com bastante h-alpha próximo à ela. A NGC6537 é uma nebulosa planetária bipolar com uma aparência lembra um X ou uma aranha com pernas flamejantes, formada por uma estrela em seus momentos finais. Seu núcleo é uma das estrelas centrais mais quentes conhecidas em nebulosas planetárias, com temperatura superior a 500.000 K, o que contribui para a intensa iluminação do material ao redor.
NGC 6537, or the Red Spider Nebula, is a planetary nebula located about 4,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius, near the direction of the galactic center and surrounded by strong H-alpha emission. NGC 6537 is a bipolar planetary nebula with an appearance that resembles an "X" or a spider with flaming legs, formed by a dying star in its final stages. Its core is one of the hottest known central stars among planetary nebulae, with a temperature exceeding 500,000 K, contributing to the intense illumination of the surrounding material.
- Exposures: 25 Ligth Frames of 180s, 16 darks. Used L-Ultimate filter. 1h15m minutes total exposure. Processing on Pixinsight. Bortle 1
- Camera: Zwo Asi 533mc Pro, gain 100 at -10°C
- Scope: Sky-Watcher 200p (200/1000mm) with GSO 1.1 Comma Corrector
- Mount: NEQ6 Pro Sky-watcher mount
- Guiding specs: Asiair and ASI290mc in a 60x220mm everwin guidescope
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