\n<\/p>\n
January 20, 2026<\/p>\n
2 min read<\/p>\n
Add Us On Google<\/span>Add SciAm<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n New JWST images reveal Helix Nebula\u2019s knots with stunning clarity<\/p>\n A fresh look at the Helix Nebula captures new details of the cycle of stellar life and death<\/p>\n By Joseph Howlett edited by Lee Billings<\/span><\/p>\n A new image of a portion of the Helix Nebula from NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) highlights cometlike knots, fierce stellar winds and ejected shells of gas interacting with the environment surrounding a dying star.<\/p>\n NASA\/ESA\/CSA\/STScI (image); Alyssa Pagan\/STScI (image processing)<\/p>\n Even for astronomers who have gazed upon the same cosmic object over their whole career, new portraits of these celestial bodies from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have the power to delight and amaze. See, for example, JWST\u2019s latest images of the iconic Helix Nebula, also known as the \u201cEye of God,\u201d a stellar grave site some 650 light-years from Earth in the constellation Aquarius.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought this was a close-up of lavender until I saw the galaxies,\u201d wrote Australian astrophysicist Jessie Christiansen in a social media post, referring to the nebula\u2019s florid outline and JWST\u2019s knack for catching far-distant galaxies in practically every observation it makes. (Click the link to her post above to see the galaxy-strewn close-up she referred to.)<\/p>\n The Helix Nebula is an example of what astronomers call planetary nebulas, a nod to their orblike shape, as seen in early telescopes. But the appearance of planetary nebulas has little to do with planets at all\u2014these nebulas are actually roiling clouds of hot gas that emanate from dying sunlike stars and linger after their deaths. These echoes do still have a \u201cplanetary\u201d connection because their wafting clouds of gas and dust serve as the raw material for new generations of stars and planets.<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n A video compares images of the Helix Nebula from three NASA observatories: a visible-light image from the Hubble Space Telescope, an infrared view from the Spitzer Space Telescope and a high-resolution near-infrared look from JWST.<\/p>\n As revealed in the new JWST images, the Helix Nebula\u2019s distinctive \u201cEye of God\u201d structure is linked to a warm interior of recently ionized gas that is surrounded by cooler, older shells of dust that were ejected by a moribund star. Where the two meet, bundles of the hotter stuff pierce the dusty shell, creating knotty plumes that look vaguely like comets. Iconic photographs from pioneering observatories of decades past, such as the Hubble Space Telescope and the Spitzer Space Telescope, had shown this maelstrom as an extended haze around the nebula\u2019s glowing iris.<\/p>\n Now the haze is gone. Thanks to the unprecedented resolution of JWST\u2019s Near-Infrared Camera, the new images render this cloud of collisions as a richly textured tapestry of cosmic destruction and creation. Sparse tendrils of dust give way to billowing ripples of gas, forming myriad fractal structures in which, one day, new worlds may coalesce.<\/p>\n If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. Scientific American<\/span> has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been a Scientific American<\/span> subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm <\/span>always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.<\/p>\n If you subscribe to Scientific American<\/span>, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.<\/p>\n In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can’t-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world’s best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.<\/p>\n There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" January 20, 2026 2 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm New JWST images reveal Helix Nebula\u2019s knots with stunning clarity A fresh look at the Helix Nebula captures new details of the cycle of stellar life and death By Joseph Howlett edited by Lee Billings A new image of a portion of the Helix<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[5477,17909,18589,1506,8155,22216,241],"class_list":{"0":"post-42343","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-astonishing","9":"tag-clarity","10":"tag-helix","11":"tag-images","12":"tag-jwst","13":"tag-nebula","14":"tag-show"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}On supporting science journalism<\/h2>\n
It\u2019s Time to Stand Up for Science<\/h2>\n