The James Webb Space Telescope has given astronomers a brand new view of a dying star known as the Eye of God Nebula.
Also known as the Helix Nebula, the object is one of the closest dying stars to Earth, and Webb has captured its streaming pillars of gas in intricate, infrared detail.
What's more, Webb's view gives us an insight into how our own Sun may one day end its life, about 5 billion years from now.
A dying star
It might seem like the stars we see when we look up in the night sky are eternal, but they too will one day be no more.
Some stars will end their lives by shedding their outer layers into space, creating an expanded shell of stellar material known as a planetary nebula.
The term 'planetary nebula' comes from the fact that early astronomers observed their round, puffed-out shape and thought they looked like a planetary body, even though they have nothing to do with planets.
The Helix Nebula, or Eye of God Nebula, is a favourite target of amateur and professional astronomers alike, and has been imaged by some of humanity's most powerful telescopes over the decades.
It's formed from an expanding shell of gas that's being lit up by the dying husk of a star – a white dwarf – at the centre.
Webb's view of the Helix Nebula
The James Webb Space Telescope has captured the Helix Nebula in infrared light, showing the transition between the hottest gas to the coldest gas in the expanding shell of material.
Its central white dwarf can't be seen in this new Webb image, but we can see hot, ionised gas towards the centre, which is at the top of image.
This is caused by intense radiation from the white dwarf lighting up the surrounding gas.
Further out can be seen cooler molecular hydrogen and pockets where complex molecules are beginning to form within clouds of cosmic dust.
These are the ingredients out of which new stars may eventually form. The cosmos can be very good at recycling old material into new objects.
There are multiple pillars of dust and gas, whose extended trails form a curved line stretching across the image.
This is the circumference of the inner region of the expanding gas shell.
Streams of hot gas are expanding outwards and smashing into cooler material that was ejected much longer ago, creating the circular 'eye of god' structure.
In Webb's infrared view, colour reveals the temperature and chemistry within the nebula.
Blue hue marks the hottest gas that's being blasted by the white dwarf's radiation.
Further from the white dwarf, the gas has cooled into yellow regions. The coolest material at the edge of the nebula is red-hued.
One day, 5 billion years from now, when our Sun has run out of all its fuel, our own Solar System may become a planetary nebula just like this.
