Southern Ring Nebula

Webb’s second image displays the Southern Ring Nebula. On top is the view from Webb’s NIRCam instrument, showing the nebula in near-infrared light. On the bottom is the view from the observatory’s MIRI instrument, which reveals mid-infrared light. That MIRI image is particularly special, said Karl Gordon, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute: “We knew this was a binary star, but we didn’t really see much of the actual star that produced the nebula.” MIRI’s view displays both stars at the nebula’s heart.