2025年4月15日
Planetary Nebula NGC 1514 from Webb
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, M. E. Ressler (JPL) et al.; Processing: Judy Schmidt
Explanation: 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.
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韦伯影像: 行星状星云NGC 1514
影像提供: NASA, ESA, CSA, M. E. Ressler (JPL) et al.; 影像处理: Judy Schmidt
说明: 当恒星耗尽核燃料后，会发生什么事？对于像太阳这类的恒星而言，其星核会收缩形成白矮星，而外层的大气则会被抛入太空，形成行星状星云。在可见光波段，由恒星外层大气所形成的行星状星云NGC 1514，形似气泡集结而成的乱集团。不过，如这幅主题影像所示，在韦伯太空望远镜的红外 光视觉里，却见到了截然不同的故事，这团行星状星云很明显形似沙漏，而目前的诠译为望远镜视线沿对角线看进了圆柱体所致。如果仔细检视星云的中心，还可以见到可能是双星系统成员之一的明亮中心星。未来后续的观测，或许能解读这团星云如何演化，以及中心的双星，如何携手造成这团很有趣的圆柱形星云和所见到的气泡。
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