NASA's Webb Telescope snaps Southern Ring Nebula with two instruments; know what it found

The James Webb Telescope has begun its operations with the release of five infrared images that it captured of five different celestial objects out there in the universe. Earlier today, NASA shared the images which featured an exoplanet having a watery atmosphere along with a dying star inside a nebula that is expelling clouds of dust and gas out into the cosmos among others. While each of the five objects has been observed in the highest detail to date, the said dying star has been photographed using two Webb instruments.

Comparing the dying star in images from NIRCam and MIRI

The image above features the Southern Ring Nebula, also called NGC 3132, which has been observed separately by two different Webb instruments-- the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and the Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI). The image on the left is the one produced using the NIRCam and it reveals the nebula's star and its layers of light in greater detail.

On the other hand, the picture on the right was captured using MIRI and it revealed that for the first time that the dying star is cloaked in dust. The telescope has a total of four instruments, the other two being the Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) and the Fine Guidance Sensor/Near InfraRed Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (FGS/NIRISS). 

NASA says that in the next few thousand years, the multiple delicate gaseous layers of the nebula will dissipate into the surrounding space. Notably, this Southern Ring has been classified as a planetary nebula, but it does not house any planets but just shells of dust and gas shed by dying Sun-like stars. Interestingly, NASA also shared a picture of the same nebula which was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope back in 1998.

Now that Webb has officially begun its science operations, astronomers are aiming to dig deeper into other specifics of this entity which is located nearly 2,500 light-years away. "Understanding which molecules are present, and where they lie throughout the shells of gas and dust will help researchers refine their knowledge of these objects," NASA said in a statement. Apart from the Southern Ring Nebula, NASA has released four more images of an exoplanet and galaxy clusters. Tap here to read all about them.