Produced by: Mohsin Shaikh
Credit: NASA, ESA
Discovered in 1779, the Ring Nebula was long thought to be a simple shell of gas. But JWST just revealed a hidden dusty disk at its heart.
Credit: NASA, ESA
At the center lies a dying star shedding its skin—and now surrounded by a mysterious dust cloud spanning 2,600 AU across.
Representative pic
Using JWST’s NIRCam and MIRI, astronomers detected infrared emissions hinting at tiny silicate dust grains swirling around the white dwarf.
The central star, a future white dwarf, is 0.61 times the mass of our Sun and burns at a searing 135,000 K—hot enough to vaporize most elements.
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The dust ring is minuscule in mass—only about 0.00000186 Earths—but it holds deep clues about stellar evolution and death.
Representative pic/NASA
Strange flickers in the star’s light suggest it may not be alone. A faint dwarf companion could be orbiting nearby, disturbing the dust.
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Planetary nebulae like the Ring are cosmic recyclers. They seed galaxies with carbon, oxygen, and more—fuel for future stars and planets.
Representative pic/NASA
The dusty disk may be the last ghostly trace of a dramatic binary interaction—possibly from a violent merger or a close stellar dance.
Representative pic/NASA
As a textbook planetary nebula, the Ring is now rewriting its own chapter, proving even familiar objects can hold galactic surprises.
Representative pic/NASA