The Eye of God: JWST Captures the Helix Nebula Like Never Before

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has captured a detailed image of the Helix Nebula, also known as the “Eye of God” due to its distinctive shape. At the center of the nebula is a white dwarf – a remnant of a dying star’s core that ejects material colliding with the surrounding shell of gas and dust. The image, captured using the NIRCam near-infrared camera, showcases the nebula’s structure, including cometary knots, stellar winds, and layers of gas. The photo reveals cloudy pillars surrounding the inner region of the expanding gaseous shell. A wind of rapidly-moving hot gases from the dying star collides with slower, cooler layers of gas and dust shed by the star at an earlier stage, creating the nebula’s unique shape.

The white dwarf at the center emits radiation that illuminates the surrounding gas, forming layers of material. Closest to the white dwarf lies hot ionized gas, followed by cooler molecular hydrogen and protective pockets inside dust clouds where more complex molecules can form. Nebulae like the Helix are formed when a Sun-like star sheds its outer layers at the end of its life. This process enriches the interstellar medium with elements necessary for forming new stars and planets.

The image represents the temperature and chemical composition of the material in different colors. The blue hue indicates the hottest gas, heated by the white dwarf’s intense ultraviolet radiation. Further out, the gas cools, forming yellow regions where hydrogen atoms bond into molecules. At the nebula’s outer edges, reddish tones signify the coldest material, where thin gas gives way to dust formation.

The Helix Nebula, located in the Aquarius constellation about 650 light-years from Earth, was first discovered in the 1800s and has since become one of the most recognizable night sky objects. Its close distance of 650 light-years makes it one of the nearest bright planetary nebulae to us, allowing astronomers to study in detail the processes occurring during star death. Recent observations by JWST have enhanced our understanding of such phenomena, providing clarity on the interactions between stellar remnants and interstellar materials.