{"id":8781,"date":"2026-10-19T06:39:50","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T13:39:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=8781"},"modified":"2026-10-19T06:39:50","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T13:39:50","slug":"come-face-to-face-with-the-lion-nebula-in-the-james-webb-space-telescopes-portrait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=8781","title":{"rendered":"Come Face-to-Face with the Lion Nebula in the James Webb Space Telescope\u2019s Portrait"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Come<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope has captured some remarkable phenomena in space, from the Horsehead Nebula<\/a> to the unbelievable \u201cPillars of Creation<\/a>.\u201d Things just got a little bit wilder with brilliant images of the Lion Nebula<\/a> (NGC 2392) captured by the telescope\u2019s NIRCam (Near Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid Infrared Instrument). The shape is formed by the remains of a dying star now at a phase known as a white dwarf, when a very dense stellar core remains as it sheds its outer layers. On NGC 2392, the bright center looks like a little nose.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe central dying star is so hot that its radiation is \u2018cooking\u2019 everything from the inside and producing a bubble of ionized hydrogen gas as it does,\u201d NASA says. \u201cThe gas bubble, which is the lion\u2019s \u2018face,\u2019 features cavernous shells and rings with tendrils that are expanding and destroying dust upon encounter.\u201d The lion\u2019s \u201cmane\u201d is actually the inside of one of these shells, illuminated by the star\u2019s core.<\/p>\n

\"a
NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope\u2019s mid-infrared image of planetary nebula NGC 2392, nicknamed the Lion Nebula, highlights the varying dust structures. Some dust is being destroyed by the dying central star\u2019s radiation, while some dust filaments manage to survive.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From the human perspective of time, nebulae such as this one don\u2019t seem to change very quickly. \u201cIt\u2019s taken several thousand years for the gas and dust to be shaped in this way, and it continues to change as the star drives away the material,\u201d NASA says. The Lion Nebula is changing rather quickly in astronomical terms, however, and astronomers estimate that it will fully disperse in about 10,000 years. (via Kottke<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"a
Planetary nebula NGC 2392, the Lion Nebula<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member<\/a> today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Come Face-to-Face with the Lion Nebula in the James Webb Space Telescope\u2019s Portrait<\/a> appeared first on Colossal<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope has captured some remarkable phenomena in space, from the Horsehead Nebula to the unbelievable \u201cPillars of Creation.\u201d Things just got a little bit wilder with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8781\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}