James Webb Space Telescope has captured the most detailed view yet of the Red Spider Nebula (NGC 6537), showing gigantic bubbles of gas and dust stretching three light-years from a dying star.

A Dying Star Caught in a Cosmic Web

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has turned its powerful eye toward one of the most dramatic planetary nebulae in the Milky Way: the Red Spider Nebula, also known as NGC 6537.

Using its Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), Webb has revealed intricate structures of gas and dust that were previously hidden, including vast blue “lobes” of molecular hydrogen stretching several light-years into space. NASA

The result is a breathtaking image of a star in its final act – and a preview of what will someday happen to stars like our Sun.

What Is the Red Spider Nebula?

The Red Spider Nebula lies about 3,000 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius. It is a planetary nebula – the glowing shell of gas left behind when a Sun-like star runs out of fuel, swells into a red giant, and then sheds its outer layers into space.

At the center sits an extremely hot stellar core, likely more than 100,000 °C, blasting the surrounding gas with intense ultraviolet radiation. That radiation makes the nebula shine and drives powerful winds that shape its dramatic, spider-like appearance.

Astronomers suspect that a hidden companion star may be orbiting the central star. A second star could explain the nebula’s narrow waist and the wide outflows that form the “legs” of the spider.

What Webb Saw That Other Telescopes Couldn’t

Earlier images from telescopes like Hubble already showed a chaotic, two-lobed structure. Webb’s new observations go much further:

• Closed, bubble-like lobes: The blue regions in the new image trace emission from molecular hydrogen (H₂). Webb shows that these lobes are closed bubbles, each extending roughly 3 light-years from the center of the nebula. NASA
• Hot dust near the core: Webb detects hot dust likely orbiting close to the dying star, revealing where material is being heated and re-shaped in real time.
• Fine filaments and shocks: The red and purple filaments mark regions where fast stellar winds slam into slower material, creating shock waves that sculpt the nebula’s intricate pattern.

Because Webb observes in infrared light, it can see through dust that blocks visible light. This lets astronomers map the full extent of the nebula’s outflows and understand how the star has been shedding mass over thousands of years.