NASA has shared new images of the Lion Nebula captured with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) – and the frames depict the celestial marvel in a level of detail that astronomers were yet to see.
The Lion Nebula, or NGC 2392, is the shrunken core of a dying star (a white dwarf) surrounded by expanding gas and dust located roughly 6,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Gemini.
First discovered by the astronomer William Herschel in 1787, it was historically called the Eskimo Nebula. However, in 2000, the Hubble Space Telescope imaged the cosmic body, revealing how it looked more like a lion.
Hubble proved how the central dwarf acted as the "nose", a glowing bubble of ionized gas formed the fierce "face" and an illuminated shell of dust stretched out as the "mane".
Recently the American space agency pictured the nebula again, this time with the JWST.
Using the telescopes NIRCam (Near Infrared Camera), which measures light in the near-infrared spectrum, and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), which captures longer infrared wavelengths, astronomers revealed details that Hubble couldn’t.
They highlight features like compact clumps of dust and a haze of ionized gas, helping astronomers to better understand how lower-mass stars die, shed their material and shape the surrounding universe.
According to NASA, it’s taken NGC 2392 thousands of years to form its current shape – and the nebula’s components will continue changing until its gas and dust migrate away from the stellar core.
Astronomers estimate that the lion will eventually disperse in approximately 10,000 years – a relatively "short period in astronomical terms", the space agency said.
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