                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                2025 April 15
     A starfield is dominated by a multi-colored figure 8 in the middle,
   titled on a diagonal. The outsides of the nebula appear light colored,
   while the inside shows complex structure tinted red and purple. Please
             see the explanation for more detailed information.

                     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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