'James Webb's Infrared Eyes': Newly discovered rings could rewrite what we know about star deaths
Produced by: Mohsin Shaikh
Credit: NASA
Ghostly Rings
JWST’s sharp eyes revealed haunting mid-infrared rings hidden within NGC 1514 — giant cosmic loops of dust glowing like faint halos, wrapped around a dying star 1,500 light-years away.
Infrared Secrets
Once invisible to optical telescopes, these rings shine brilliantly only in mid-infrared, hinting at cold, dusty material that escaped the dying star long before the nebula bloomed.
Representative pic/NASA
Crystal Mystery
Nicknamed the "Crystal Ball Nebula," NGC 1514’s beautiful but puzzling rings stretch up to 1.3 light-years wide, a dusty fingerprint left by chaotic stellar winds and slow ejections.
Credit: NASA
Stellar Fossils
Formed during a slow death spiral of a star turning into a white dwarf, the rings are likely remnants of massive outflows that shaped the entire nebula’s ghostly glow.
Representative pic/NASA
Raging Winds
JWST found signs of fast winds crashing through older material, sculpting the rings into their swirling, turbulent yet cohesive forms, like smoke trapped in invisible cosmic currents.
Dusty Echoes
With temperatures as low as 110 K (–260°F), these rings are pure dust emission, glowing faintly from heat leftover from the star's ancient, dying breaths.
Twin Star Drama
Born from a binary star system, the nebula’s stunning rings likely trace a history of stellar interactions — where a giant and a hot, faint companion shaped these bizarre, symmetric structures.
Representative pic
Hidden Shells
Beyond the glowing loops, JWST spotted faint outer emissions — traces of earlier eruptions or forgotten stellar storms, now stretched thin and dim at the nebula's edges.
Final Farewell
As NGC 1514’s star fades into a white dwarf, the rings remain like cosmic smoke rings, frozen in space — a last, dusty whisper of a star's long, slow goodbye.