NASA - Poster - 12a. Southern Ring Nebula’s Gas (NIRCam and MIRI Composite Compass Image) - James Webb Space Telescope

One of the two number 12 images of the James Webb Space Telescope shows again how amazing our space is. Almost a beating heart!

This image of the Southern Ring Nebula (NGC 3132), captured by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), shows compass arrows, scale bar, and color key for reference.

The north and east compass arrows show the orientation of the image on the sky. Note that the relationship between north and east on the sky (as seen from below) is flipped relative to direction arrows on a map of the ground (as seen from above).

The scale bar is labeled in light-years, which is the distance that light travels in one Earth-year. (It takes 0.25 years for light to travel a distance equal to the length of the scale bar.) One light-year is equal to about 5.88 trillion miles or 9.46 trillion kilometers. The field of view shown in this image is approximately 0.25 light-years across.

This image shows invisible near-infrared and mid-infrared wavelengths of light that have been translated into visible-light colors. The color key shows which NIRCam and MIRI filters were used when collecting the light.

The color of each filter name is the visible light color used to represent the infrared light that passes through that filter.

Credits:

SCIENCE: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Orsola De Marco (Macquarie University)

IMAGE PROCESSING: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

Keywords: Emission Nebulas, Nebulas, Planetary Nebulas, White Dwarfs