Roger Wesson of Cardiff University, upon viewing the initial images, expressed amazement at the level of detail they contained. He described the vibrant ring that bestows the nebula its name as a composite of approximately 20,000 individual clumps of dense molecular hydrogen gas, each equivalent to the mass of Earth.
Messier 57, or the Ring Nebula as it's widely known, shouldn't be mistaken with the Southern Ring Nebula, one of the first images taken by the JWST. It is widely recognized as one of the finest specimens of a planetary nebula in our possession. Despite its name, this light-year-wide spectacle isn't related to planets at all. The term "planetary nebula" is a bit misleading. In fact, these are areas of cosmic gas and dust, ejected from the outer shells of dying stars - in this case, the star was quite spherical and resembled our Sun.
Wesson also mentioned that planetary nebulas were once perceived as simple, round objects with a single dying star at their core. They were named for their fuzzy, planet-like appearance when viewed through small telescopes. "Only a few thousand years ago, that star was still a red giant shedding most of its mass. As a final goodbye, the hot core now ionizes, or heats up, this expelled gas, and the nebula reacts with a vibrant emission of light," he added.
(Image credit: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, M. Barlow (University College London), N. Cox (ACRI-ST), R. Wesson (Cardiff University))
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