What happens when a star runs out of nuclear fuel? For stars like our Sun, the center condenses into a white dwarf while the outer atmosphere is expelled into space to appear as a planetary nebula. The expelled outer atmosphere of planetary nebula NGC 1514 appears to be a jumble of bubbles -- when seen in visible light. But the view from the James Webb Space Telescope in infrared, as featured here, confirms a different story: in this light the nebula shows a distinct hourglass shape, which is interpreted as a cylinder seen along a diagonal. If you look closely at the center of the nebula, you can also see a bright central star that is part of a binary system. More observations might better reveal how this nebula is evolving and how the central stars are working together to produce the interesting cylinder and bubbles observed. Jump Around the Universe: Random APOD Generator1
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Last updated on 2025-04-15 by the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day API. ↩