April 15, 2025

Planetary Nebula NGC 1514 (MIRI image, annotated)

An image captured by the James Webb Space Telescope depicts NGC 1514, a planetary nebula with a dying star at its center. The MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) captured details never seen before, especially of the rings visible only in infrared. The dying star has a companion, although in the images, it seems that thre’s a single bright star at the center of the nebula. This show will continue for many more millennia before the materials disperse into interstellar space. In the meantime, the dying star already only has a compact core left in the form of a white dwarf.