The Ring Nebula is a well-known space icon shaped like a doughnut about 2,500 light-years away in the constellation Lyra.
But astronomers think it’s been holding a secret that only the penetrating gaze of the James Webb Space Telescope, a joint project of NASA and the European and Canadian space agencies, could reveal. Using Webb’s infrared-sensing MIRI instrument, scientists got a clear sightline to the small but scorching star at its center.
The shriveled core — a white dwarf — is all that remains of the star on its deathbed, having molted its outermost layers. When researchers zoomed in, they got a surprise. Surrounding the withering star was a disk of dust, much like the kind found around new stars that are in their prime planet-birthing years. It was kind of like seeing a pregnant octogenarian in a nursing home.
This is just the second time scientists have observed such a disk around a star at the end of its life. And though they can’t actually see baby planets in their nebula images, they are now wondering if these space environments could trigger a second generation of planets, long after the original brood of worlds formed around the star.
Support authors and subscribe to content
This is premium stuff. Subscribe to read the entire article.
