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6 Min Read NASA’s Chandra Releases New 3D Models of Cosmic Objects
New three-dimensional (3D) models of objects in space have been released by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. These 3D models allow people to explore — and print — examples of stars in the early and end stages of their lives. They also provide scientists with new avenues to investigate scientific questions and find insights about the objects they represent.
These 3D models are based on state-of-the-art theoretical models, computational algorithms, and observations from space-based telescopes like Chandra that give us accurate pictures of these cosmic objects and how they evolve over time.
However, looking at images and animations is not the only way to experience this data. The four new 3D printable models of Cassiopeia A (Cas A), G292.0+1.8 (G292), Cygnus Loop supernova remnants, and the star known as BP Tau let us experience the celestial objects in the form of physical structures that will allow anyone to hold replicas of these stars and their surroundings and examine them from all angles.
Cassiopeia A (Cas A)
Using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers uncovered a mysterious feature within the remnant, nicknamed the “Green Monster,” alongside a puzzling network of ejecta filaments forming a web of oxygen-rich material. When combined with X-rays from Chandra, the data helped astronomers shed light on the origin of the Green Monster and revealed new insights into the explosion that created Cas A about 340 years ago, from Earth’s perspective.
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3D Model of Cassiopeia A "Green Monster" INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo/Salvatore Orlando To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
3D Model of Cassiopeia AINAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo/Salvatore Orlando BP Tau
X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: PanSTARRS; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk This 3D model shows a star less than 10 million years old that is surrounded by a disk of material. This class of objects is known as T Tauri stars, named after a young star in the Taurus star-forming region. The model describes the effects of multiple flares, or outbursts that are detected in X-rays by Chandra from one T Tauri star known as BP Tau. These flares interact with the disk of material and lead to the formation of an extended outer atmosphere composed by hot loops, connecting the disk to the developing star.
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3D Model of BP TauINAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo/Salvatore Orlando Cygnus Loop
X-ray: NASA/SAO/CXC; Optical: John Stone (Astrobin); Image Processing: NASA/SAO/CXC/L. Frattre, N. Wolk The Cygnus Loop (also known as the Veil Nebula) is a supernova remnant, the remains of the explosive death of a massive star. This 3D model is the result of a simulation describing the interaction of a blast wave from the explosion with an isolated cloud of the interstellar medium (that is, dust and gas in between the stars). Chandra sees the blast wave and other material that has been heated to millions of degrees. The Cygnus Loop is a highly extended, but faint, structure on the sky: At three degrees across, it has the diameter of six full moons.
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3D Model of Cygnus LoopINAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo/Salvatore Orlando G292.0+1.8
X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical:NSF/NASA/DSS; Image Processing This is a rare type of supernova remnant observed to contain large amounts of oxygen. The X-ray image of G292.0+1.8 from Chandra shows a rapidly expanding, intricately structured field left behind by the shattered star. By creating a 3D model of the system, astronomers have been able to examine the asymmetrical shape of the remnant that can be explained by a “reverse” shock wave moving back toward the original explosion.
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3D Model of G292.0+1.8INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo/Salvatore Orlando The 3D models here are the subject of several scholarly papers by Salvatore Orlando of INAF in Palermo, Italy, and colleagues published in The Astrophysical Journal, Astronomy & Astrophysics, and Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Much of this work is also publicly available work on SketchFab.
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.
Read more from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Learn more about the Chandra X-ray Observatory and its mission here:
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Visual Description
This release features visualizations of three supernova remnants and one star. Each is rendered as a composite image, and as a digital 3-dimensional model, presented in separate short video clips. The composite images are two dimensional and static, but the digital models rotate, showcasing their three-dimensionality.
The first featured supernova is Cassiopeia A. In the X-ray, optical, and infrared composite image, the debris from an exploded star resembles a round purple gas cloud, marbled with streaks of golden light. In the rotating, 3D model, the purple gas cloud is depicted as a flat disk, like a record or CD. Bursting out the front and back of the disk is an orange and white shape similar to a ball of coral, or a head of cauliflower lined with stubby tendrils. Most of the ball, and the majority of the tendrils, appear on one side of the disk. On the opposite side, the shape resembles dollops of thick whipped cream.
Next in the release is a star known as BP Tau. BP Tau is a developing star, less than 10 million years old, and prone to outbursts or flares. These flares interact with a disk of material that surrounds the young star, forming hot loops of extended atmosphere. In the composite image, BP Tau resembles a distant, glowing white dot surrounded by a band of pink light. The rotating, 3D model is far more dynamic and intriguing! Here, the disk of material resembles a large blue puck with round, ringed, concave surfaces. At the heart of the puck is a small, glowing red orb: the developing star. Shooting out of the orb are long, thin, green strands: the flares. Also emerging from the orb are orange and pink petal-shaped blobs: the loops of extended atmosphere. Together, the orb, strands, and petals resemble an exotic flowering orchid.
The third celestial object in this release is the supernova remnant called Cygnus Loop. In the composite image, the remnant resembles a wispy cloud in oranges, blues, purples, and whites, shaped like a backwards letter C. The 3D model examines this cloud of interstellar material interacting with the superheated, supernova blast wave. In the 3D model, the Cygnus Loop resembles a bowl with a thick base, and a wedge cut from the side like a slice of pie. The sides of the bowl are rendered in swirled blues and greens. However, inside the thick base, revealed by the wedge-shaped cut, are streaks of red and orange. Surrounding the shape are roughly parallel thin red strands, which extend beyond the top and bottom of the digital model.
The final supernova featured in this release is G292.0+1.8. The composite image depicts the remnant as a bright and intricate ball of red, blue, and white X-ray gas and debris set against a backdrop of gleaming stars. In the 3D model, the remnant is rendered in translucent icy blue and shades of orange. Here, the rotating shape is revealed to be somewhat like a bulbous arrowhead, or perhaps an iceberg on its side.
News Media Contact
Megan Watzke
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617-496-7998
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Lane Figueroa
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
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Last Updated Apr 16, 2025 Related Terms
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Explore This Section Webb News Latest News Latest Images Blog (offsite) Awards X (offsite – login reqd) Instagram (offsite – login reqd) Facebook (offsite- login reqd) Youtube (offsite) Overview About Who is James Webb? Fact Sheet Impacts+Benefits FAQ Science Overview and Goals Early Universe Galaxies Over Time Star Lifecycle Other Worlds Observatory Overview Launch Deployment Orbit Mirrors Sunshield Instrument: NIRCam Instrument: MIRI Instrument: NIRSpec Instrument: FGS/NIRISS Optical Telescope Element Backplane Spacecraft Bus Instrument Module Multimedia About Webb Images Images Videos What is Webb Observing? 3d Webb in 3d Solar System Podcasts Webb Image Sonifications Team International Team People Of Webb More For the Media For Scientists For Educators For Fun/Learning 5 Min Read With NASA’s Webb, Dying Star’s Energetic Display Comes Into Full Focus
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has taken the most detailed image of planetary nebula NGC 1514 to date thanks to its unique mid-infrared observations. Webb shows its rings as intricate clumps of dust. It’s also easier to see holes punched through the bright pink central region. Credits:
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Michael Ressler (NASA-JPL), Dave Jones (IAC) Gas and dust ejected by a dying star at the heart of NGC 1514 came into complete focus thanks to mid-infrared data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Its rings, which are only detected in infrared light, now look like “fuzzy” clumps arranged in tangled patterns, and a network of clearer holes close to the central stars shows where faster material punched through.
“Before Webb, we weren’t able to detect most of this material, let alone observe it so clearly,” said Mike Ressler, a researcher and project scientist for Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in southern California. He discovered the rings around NGC 1514 in 2010 when he examined the image from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). “With MIRI’s data, we can now comprehensively examine the turbulent nature of this nebula,” he said.
This scene has been forming for at least 4,000 years — and will continue to change over many more millennia. At the center are two stars that appear as one in Webb’s observation, and are set off with brilliant diffraction spikes. The stars follow a tight, elongated nine-year orbit and are draped in an arc of dust represented in orange.
One of these stars, which used to be several times more massive than our Sun, took the lead role in producing this scene. “As it evolved, it puffed up, throwing off layers of gas and dust in in a very slow, dense stellar wind,” said David Jones, a senior scientist at the Institute of Astrophysics on the Canary Islands, who proved there is a binary star system at the center in 2017.
Once the star’s outer layers were expelled, only its hot, compact core remained. As a white dwarf star, its winds both sped up and weakened, which might have swept up material into thin shells.
Image A: Planetary Nebula NGC 1514 (MIRI Image)
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has taken the most detailed image of planetary nebula NGC 1514 to date thanks to its unique mid-infrared observations. Webb shows its rings as intricate clumps of dust. It’s also easier to see holes punched through the bright pink central region. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Michael Ressler (NASA-JPL), Dave Jones (IAC) Image B: Planetary Nebula NGC 1514 (WISE and Webb Images Side by Side)
Two infrared views of NGC 1514. At left is an observation from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). At right is a more refined image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, NASA-JPL, Caltech, UCLA, Michael Ressler (NASA-JPL), Dave Jones (IAC) Its Hourglass Shape
Webb’s observations show the nebula is tilted at a 60-degree angle, which makes it look like a can is being poured, but it’s far more likely that NGC 1514 takes the shape of an hourglass with the ends lopped off. Look for hints of its pinched waist near top left and bottom right, where the dust is orange and drifts into shallow V-shapes.
What might explain these contours? “When this star was at its peak of losing material, the companion could have gotten very, very close,” Jones said. “That interaction can lead to shapes that you wouldn’t expect. Instead of producing a sphere, this interaction might have formed these rings.”
Though the outline of NGC 1514 is clearest, the hourglass also has “sides” that are part of its three-dimensional shape. Look for the dim, semi-transparent orange clouds between its rings that give the nebula body.
A Network of Dappled Structures
The nebula’s two rings are unevenly illuminated in Webb’s observations, appearing more diffuse at bottom left and top right. They also look fuzzy, or textured. “We think the rings are primarily made up of very small dust grains,” Ressler said. “When those grains are hit by ultraviolet light from the white dwarf star, they heat up ever so slightly, which we think makes them just warm enough to be detected by Webb in mid-infrared light.”
In addition to dust, the telescope also revealed oxygen in its clumpy pink center, particularly at the edges of the bubbles or holes.
NGC 1514 is also notable for what is absent. Carbon and more complex versions of it, smoke-like material known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, are common in planetary nebulae (expanding shells of glowing gas expelled by stars late in their lives). Neither were detected in NGC 1514. More complex molecules might not have had time to form due to the orbit of the two central stars, which mixed up the ejected material. A simpler composition also means that the light from both stars reaches much farther, which is why we see the faint, cloud-like rings.
What about the bright blue star to the lower left with slightly smaller diffraction spikes than the central stars? It’s not part of this nebula. In fact, this star lies closer to us.
This planetary nebula has been studied by astronomers since the late 1700s. Astronomer William Herschel noted in 1790 that NGC 1514 was the first deep sky object to appear genuinely cloudy — he could not resolve what he saw into individual stars within a cluster, like other objects he cataloged. With Webb, our view is considerably clearer.
NGC 1514 lies in the Taurus constellation approximately 1,500 light-years from Earth.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.
To learn more about Webb, visit: https://science.nasa.gov/webb
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Laura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Claire Blome – cblome@stsci.edu
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
Christine Pulliam – cpulliam@stsci.edu
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
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Michael Ressler (NASA-JPL)
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Last Updated Apr 14, 2025 Editor Marty McCoy Contact Laura Betz laura.e.betz@nasa.gov Related Terms
James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Astrophysics Binary Stars Goddard Space Flight Center Nebulae Planetary Nebulae Science & Research Stars The Universe White Dwarfs View the full article
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Explore This Section Webb News Latest News Latest Images Blog (offsite) Awards X (offsite – login reqd) Instagram (offsite – login reqd) Facebook (offsite- login reqd) Youtube (offsite) Overview About Who is James Webb? Fact Sheet Impacts+Benefits FAQ Science Overview and Goals Early Universe Galaxies Over Time Star Lifecycle Other Worlds Observatory Overview Launch Deployment Orbit Mirrors Sunshield Instrument: NIRCam Instrument: MIRI Instrument: NIRSpec Instrument: FGS/NIRISS Optical Telescope Element Backplane Spacecraft Bus Instrument Module Multimedia About Webb Images Images Videos What is Webb Observing? 3d Webb in 3d Solar System Podcasts Webb Image Sonifications Team International Team People Of Webb More For the Media For Scientists For Educators For Fun/Learning 6 Min Read NASA Webb’s Autopsy of Planet Swallowed by Star Yields Surprise
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s observations of what is thought to be the first-ever recorded planetary engulfment event revealed a hot accretion disk surrounding the star, with an expanding cloud of cooler dust enveloping the scene. Webb also revealed that the star did not swell to swallow the planet, but the planet’s orbit actually slowly depreciated over time, as seen in this artist’s concept. Full illustration below. Credits:
NASA, ESA, CSA, R. Crawford (STScI) Observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have provided a surprising twist in the narrative surrounding what is believed to be the first star observed in the act of swallowing a planet. The new findings suggest that the star actually did not swell to envelop a planet as previously hypothesized. Instead, Webb’s observations show the planet’s orbit shrank over time, slowly bringing the planet closer to its demise until it was engulfed in full.
“Because this is such a novel event, we didn’t quite know what to expect when we decided to point this telescope in its direction,” said Ryan Lau, lead author of the new paper and astronomer at NSF NOIRLab (National Science Foundation National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory) in Tuscon, Arizona. “With its high-resolution look in the infrared, we are learning valuable insights about the final fates of planetary systems, possibly including our own.”
Two instruments aboard Webb conducted the post-mortem of the scene – Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) and NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph). The researchers were able to come to their conclusion using a two-pronged investigative approach.
Image A: Planetary Engulfment Illustration
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s observations of what is thought to be the first-ever recorded planetary engulfment event revealed a hot accretion disk surrounding the star, with an expanding cloud of cooler dust enveloping the scene. Webb also revealed that the star did not swell to swallow the planet, but the planet’s orbit actually slowly depreciated over time, as seen in this artist’s concept. NASA, ESA, CSA, R. Crawford (STScI) Constraining the How
The star at the center of this scene is located in the Milky Way galaxy about 12,000 light-years away from Earth.
The brightening event, formally called ZTF SLRN-2020, was originally spotted as a flash of optical light using the Zwicky Transient Facility at the Palomar Observatory in San Diego, California. Data from NASA’s NEOWISE (Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) showed the star actually brightened in the infrared a year before the optical light flash, hinting at the presence of dust. This initial 2023 investigation led researchers to believe that the star was more Sun-like, and had been in the process of aging into a red giant over hundreds of thousands of years, slowly expanding as it exhausted its hydrogen fuel.
However, Webb’s MIRI told a different story. With powerful sensitivity and spatial resolution, Webb was able to precisely measure the hidden emission from the star and its immediate surroundings, which lie in a very crowded region of space. The researchers found the star was not as bright as it should have been if it had evolved into a red giant, indicating there was no swelling to engulf the planet as once thought.
Reconstructing the Scene
Researchers suggest that, at one point, the planet was about Jupiter-sized, but orbited quite close to the star, even closer than Mercury’s orbit around our Sun. Over millions of years, the planet orbited closer and closer to the star, leading to the catastrophic consequence.
“The planet eventually started to graze the star’s atmosphere. Then it was a runaway process of falling in faster from that moment,” said team member Morgan MacLeod of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “The planet, as it’s falling in, started to sort of smear around the star.”
In its final splashdown, the planet would have blasted gas away from the outer layers of the star. As it expanded and cooled off, the heavy elements in this gas condensed into cold dust over the next year.
Inspecting the Leftovers
While the researchers did expect an expanding cloud of cooler dust around the star, a look with the powerful NIRSpec revealed a hot circumstellar disk of molecular gas closer in. Furthermore, Webb’s high spectral resolution was able to detect certain molecules in this accretion disk, including carbon monoxide.
“With such a transformative telescope like Webb, it was hard for me to have any expectations of what we’d find in the immediate surroundings of the star,” said Colette Salyk of Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, an exoplanet researcher and co-author on the new paper. “I will say, I could not have expected seeing what has the characteristics of a planet-forming region, even though planets are not forming here, in the aftermath of an engulfment.”
The ability to characterize this gas opens more questions for researchers about what actually happened once the planet was fully swallowed by the star.
“This is truly the precipice of studying these events. This is the only one we’ve observed in action, and this is the best detection of the aftermath after things have settled back down,” Lau said. “We hope this is just the start of our sample.”
These observations, taken under Guaranteed Time Observation program 1240, which was specifically designed to investigate a family of mysterious, sudden, infrared brightening events, were among the first Target of Opportunity programs performed by Webb. These types of study are reserved for events, like supernova explosions, that are expected to occur, but researchers don’t exactly know when or where. NASA’s space telescopes are part of a growing, international network that stands ready to witness these fleeting changes, to help us understand how the universe works.
Researchers expect to add to their sample and identify future events like this using the upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory and NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which will survey large areas of the sky repeatedly to look for changes over time.
The team’s findings appear today in The Astrophysical Journal.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
To learn more about Webb, visit: https://science.nasa.gov/webb
Downloads
Click any image to open a larger version.
View/Download all image products at all resolutions for this article from the Space Telescope Science Institute.
View/Download the science paper from the The Astrophysical Journal.
Media Contacts
Laura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Hannah Braun – hbraun@stsci.edu
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
Related Information
Read more about Webb’s impact on exoplanet research
Video: How to Study Exoplanets
Learn more about exoplanets
More Webb News
More Webb Images
Webb Science Themes
Webb Mission Page
Related For Kids
What is the Webb Telescope?
SpacePlace for Kids
En Español
Ciencia de la NASA
NASA en español
Space Place para niños
Keep Exploring Related Topics
James Webb Space Telescope
Webb is the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It studies every phase in the…
Exoplanets
Stars
Universe
Share
Details
Last Updated Apr 10, 2025 Editor Marty McCoy Contact Laura Betz laura.e.betz@nasa.gov Related Terms
James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Astrophysics Exoplanets Goddard Space Flight Center Science & Research Stars The Milky Way The Universe View the full article
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