Today’s Image of the Day from the James Webb Space Telescope features the planetary nebula NGC 6072, located about 3,200 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius. 

The nebula was formed from the outer layers of a dying star and shaped by complex interactions that likely involved a hidden companion star.

When stars like our Sun reach the end of their lives, they don’t go quietly. They erupt – slowly, over thousands of years – shedding their outer layers into space and creating glowing shells of gas and dust called planetary nebulae. 

These dramatic displays are not only visually striking but also packed with information about how stars live and die. Thanks to NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers are now getting a much closer look at stellar life cycles in remarkable detail.

Not your typical nebula

NGC 6072 doesn’t look like the neat, symmetrical nebula that many might imagine. Instead, Webb’s image shows what looks like a cosmic splatter painting: a tangled web of gas, dust, and glowing rings shooting out in different directions.

While some planetary nebulae are spherical or have two clear lobes – what astronomers call “bipolar” shapes – this one breaks the mold. Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) reveals that NGC 6072 is “multi-polar,” with at least three separate lobes extending in different directions. 

One pair stretches from roughly 11 o’clock to 5 o’clock, another from 1 to 7, and possibly a third from 12 to 6. It’s like watching a fountain spew in several directions all at once.

These lobes likely didn’t form by chance. Instead, astronomers think they’re being sculpted by the powerful influence of a second star orbiting the one that’s dying.

A partner in the chaos

The idea of a companion star adds a layer of complexity to the story. The star at the center of NGC 6072 is nearing the final stages of its life and shedding its outer layers – a common fate for low- to intermediate-mass stars like the Sun. But when there’s a second star nearby, things can get messy.

Astronomers believe that this companion is interacting with the main star’s ejecta, shaping the outflows and possibly compressing material into a disk that appears perpendicular to the lobes. Webb’s high-resolution data suggests this dynamic duo is responsible for NGC 6072’s odd shape.

The central area has a light blue glow in near-infrared light, showing the hot core that remains. Dark orange wisps of gas and dust curve around it, interrupted by deep blue openings. 

These shapes may have been carved out by fast stellar winds blowing through the earlier, slower-moving halo of gas the star expelled long ago.

Mysterious rings of NGC 6072

In the mid-infrared view from Webb’s MIRI instrument, the picture becomes even more intriguing. One tiny pinkish-white dot, likely the main star, sits at the center, surrounded by a faint bullseye of concentric rings. These rings hint at a story that spans thousands of years.

One explanation is that the orbiting companion star may have carved out these rings as it passed through the outer layers of the primary star’s expanding envelope, leaving behind a pattern much like ripples in a pond. 

Another possibility is that the main star itself may have gone through pulsations, shedding material in evenly spaced intervals, each separated by millennia.

The red areas in the near-infrared and blue areas in the mid-infrared both highlight cold molecular gas – most likely molecular hydrogen. 

Closer to the center, astronomers see hot, ionized gas glowing brightly. This layered combination of temperatures and gases offers insight into how the star has evolved over time and what forces are at work.

The cycle of life

Eventually, the nebula will fade. The hot central core will cool and shrink into a white dwarf, and the glowing gas will disperse into the interstellar medium. But it doesn’t just vanish. That material – now enriched with heavier elements forged inside the star – will go on to seed future stars, planets, and maybe even life.

This is part of a larger cosmic cycle, and NGC 6072 is helping scientists understand it better. The fact that it doesn’t follow a simple, symmetrical pattern is actually a big deal. 

The more astronomers study these oddly shaped nebulae, the more they can learn about the role of companion stars, stellar winds, and other forces in shaping the final acts of stellar life.

Astronomers studying NGC 6072 with Webb want to learn more about the full life cycle of stars and how they impact their surrounding environments. That includes understanding how stars lose up to 80 percent of their mass in these final stages and how that material gets recycled into the universe.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

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