Jewel Bug Nebula: The stunning evolution of a dying star

Today’s Image of the Day from the European Space Agency features one of the most intricate and colorful sights ever captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope – the Jewel Bug Nebula, also known as NGC 7027.

For centuries, this small cloud of glowing gas and dust was thought to be quietly shedding the outer layers of its dying star in smooth, symmetrical waves. But recent observations tell a very different story. 

The Jewel Bug has started behaving like a cosmic firework, blasting out jets and bubbles that twist, collide, and reshape the nebula faster than astronomers ever expected.

The transformation of Jewel Bug 

NGC 7027 lies roughly 3,000 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus. It’s what astronomers call a planetary nebula. 

These nebulae are the remains of Sun-like stars nearing the end of their lives. After exhausting their nuclear fuel, they shed their outer shells into space, leaving behind a hot, dense core that illuminates the surrounding material.

For a long time, NGC 7027 seemed to fit that standard picture. Its gas envelope expanded outward in delicate layers, forming almost perfect symmetry. 

But then, as Hubble’s sharp vision revealed, something changed. Instead of a calm fade, the Jewel Bug erupted in complexity – forming cloverleaf-shaped outflows and turbulent knots of gas that challenge long-held ideas about how dying stars evolve.

The cloverleaf surprise

Astronomers using Hubble’s advanced imaging instruments noticed that the nebula’s structure had transformed dramatically over the past few decades. 

The central star, once thought to be fading quietly, is instead launching jets of material that carve new paths through the gas. In some regions, those jets collide with older shells, inflating bright, petal-like lobes that give the nebula its cloverleaf appearance.

These visually stunning patterns show that the death of a star can be a chaotic and rapidly changing process.

“New observations of the object have found unprecedented levels of complexity and rapid changes in the jets and gas bubbles blasting off of the star at the centre of the nebula,” noted ESA.

That kind of activity, scientists say, can reshape a nebula in just decades – a blink of an eye on astronomical timescales.

The afterlives of stars

The findings come from a collaboration of researchers studying how planetary nebulae evolve in their final, turbulent stages. 

Astronomers from NASA and the European Space Agency have used Hubble’s long-term record to compare images taken years apart, building a detailed time-lapse of NGC 7027’s changing face.

Planetary nebulae are crucial for understanding what will eventually happen to stars like our Sun. When a star runs out of hydrogen, it swells into a red giant, ejecting its outer layers while its core collapses into a white dwarf. 

The gas surrounding it glows in ultraviolet light, forming the vivid colors we see in Hubble’s images. Over time, that material spreads into space, enriching it with carbon, oxygen, and other elements that help form new stars and planets.

What might be driving the chaos

One possible explanation for the Jewel Bug’s sudden transformation lies in the presence of a hidden companion star. If the central star is part of a binary system, the gravitational tug of its partner could distort the outflow of gas, producing spiral or cloverleaf patterns. 

Such interactions are thought to be common in the final stages of stellar evolution, but catching them in action is rare.

Other forces may also be at play. Magnetic fields could shape the jets, or the dying star might be undergoing thermal pulses that cause periodic eruptions. Whatever the cause, the nebula offers a snapshot of how complex and unpredictable stellar endings can be.

A glimpse of our Sun’s future

Looking at NGC 7027 is a reminder of our own Sun’s destiny. In about five billion years, the Sun will also swell, shed its outer layers, and leave behind a glowing shell of gas. 

Studying the Jewel Bug and similar nebulae helps scientists predict how that transformation might unfold – and how the Sun’s final act will seed the galaxy with the raw materials for new worlds.

For now, the Jewel Bug remains one of Hubble’s most dazzling subjects. Its evolving beauty captures both the violence and the elegance of cosmic change, reminding us that even in death, stars can create something spectacularly alive with color and motion.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and J. Kastner (RIT)

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