NASA's best space telescope has just seen an object in space that looks like a brain in a jar

The James Webb Space Telescope has seen a strange-looking object in space that bears a resemblance to an enormous brain in a jar.

It's known as the Exposed Cranium Nebula, and is being created by an ageing star that's blowing out cosmic gas and dust into space.

This process has produced a huge cosmic cloud that looks like one of the strangest things we've ever seen in the Universe.

Exploring the Exposed Cranium

The James Webb Space Telescope's amazing infrared vision has revealed the 'brain' inside the nebula.

This object, officially named PMR 1, is created by an aging star that's expelling its outer layers.

Nebula PMR 1 is a cloud of gas and dust that Webb has captured in both near- and mid-infrared light, using its two main science instruments.

Astronomers say the nebula seems to have distinct regions that reveal different phases of its evolution.

First, an outer shell of gas that was ejected into space consists mostly of hydrogen, while an intricately-structured inner cloud contains a mix of different gases.

Both Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) reveal a dark lane running through the middle of the nebula, making it look like the left and right hemispheres of a brain.

The Webb Telescope reveals this lane could be caused by an outburst or outflow from the central star, which often materialises as twin jets bursting outwards from a star in opposite directions.

At the top of the nebula in Webb’s image, it looks like inner gas is being ejected outward. 

Astronomers say they've still got a lot to learn about the Exposed Cranium Nebula, but they know it's being produced by a star approaching the end of its life.

As the star begins to run out of fuel, it expels its outer layers into space. This material forms the ingredients out of which new stars may one day be born.

If it’s massive enough, the star will eventually explode in a supernova.

If it's more the mass of our Sun, however, it will shed its layers and become dense stellar remnant known as a white dwarf.