A Glowing-Eyed Cosmic Cat Emerges From Dust in New Hubble and Webb Images

Two of NASA's most powerful space telescopes have turned their attention to a patch of glowing gas and dust that looks like a cat sitting with its back to the viewer. NASA said the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes captured the scene, nicknamed the Cat's Head Nebula, and that the images are helping astronomers study how stars are born.

The cat sits inside the Carina Nebula, a sprawling star-forming region about 7,500 light-years from Earth. In the images, the cat's head is turned to the right, and a glowing red spot marks its eye.

How a pillar of dust came to look like a cat

According to NASA, the shape was probably carved over time by intense ultraviolet radiation and winds from massive stars in the Carina Nebula. That stellar feedback wears away the gas and dust around it. Denser material inside the cat-shaped pillar has resisted that erosion so far, which is why the feline outline stands out.

NASA stressed that the scene is temporary. As stars form and change, the nebula will eventually disperse.

What Hubble sees in visible light

Hubble's visible-light view shows the pillar as an opaque, dark brown column of dust. The cat's glowing red eye may point to a young star that is still partly buried in dust, NASA said. A ridge of hazy yellow appears to trace the right edge of the filament. NASA said that bright rim fits with gas lit up and ionized by ultraviolet light from nearby massive stars, which could be driving a process known as photoevaporation.

The gas around the pillar glows blue and cyan at the top and shifts to yellow, orange and red toward the bottom. Hubble's filters pick up light from oxygen, hydrogen and sulfur, along with starlight scattered by dust, so the colors reflect a mix of excited gas, dust and stellar illumination.

What Webb adds by looking through the dust

Webb observes in near- and mid-infrared light, and each view supplies different information. In the near-infrared image the overall structure is similar to Hubble's, but the filament becomes more transparent and its intricate surface can be made out. On the cat's left, NASA said, are ghostly wisps of dust and gas that are exposed to radiation from nearby massive stars.

The near-infrared image also shows a dense scattering of stars, colored blue and yellow. Some of them are still wrapped in dust to varying degrees even in infrared light, and the cat's eye remains easy to spot. Webb's sharp imagery even picks up faint background galaxies, giving a partial view through the Milky Way and beyond.

In mid-infrared light, warm dust and carbon-based molecules energized by starlight outline fine structures within the nebula. Differences in local conditions and composition show up as changes in color and brightness, and delicate globules and strands to the left of the pillar stand out most clearly.

To the right of the pillar, the mid-infrared image shows a bright yellow light source set against reddish glow from surrounding material. NASA said it is likely an infant star embedded in dust. A narrow filament seems to cross it, but NASA noted that the image alone cannot show whether the two are physically connected.

Why it matters for understanding star formation

Star formation is an elusive, chaotic and complex process, NASA said, and regions like this one are packed with information about it. Because Hubble and Webb see different wavelengths, their views complement each other: one shows how starlight and radiation light up and shape the gas, while the other reveals structures and stars hidden behind dust.

For general readers, the images are also a rare chance to see a short-lived scene in the making. The cat will not last, since the very stars that sculpted it will keep reshaping and eventually disperse the cloud.

The telescopes behind the images

NASA said Hubble has been operating for more than three decades and continues to make discoveries that shape scientists' understanding of the universe. Webb, which NASA describes as the world's premier space science observatory, is an international program led by NASA with its partners. Together, the two observatories give astronomers a visible-light and an infrared look at the same corner of the Carina Nebula.

Around Prague, based on reporting by NASA