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By NASA
Researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, private companies, and academic institutions are developing the first space-based quantum sensor for measuring gravity. Supported by NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO), this mission will mark a first for quantum sensing and will pave the way for groundbreaking observations of everything from petroleum reserves to global supplies of fresh water.
A map of Earth’s gravity. Red indicates areas of the world that exert greater gravitational pull, while blue indicates areas that exert less. A science-grade quantum gravity gradiometer could one day make maps like this with unprecedented accuracy. Image Credit: NASA Earth’s gravitational field is dynamic, changing each day as geologic processes redistribute mass across our planet’s surface. The greater the mass, the greater the gravity.
You wouldn’t notice these subtle changes in gravity as you go about your day, but with sensitive tools called gravity gradiometers, scientists can map the nuances of Earth’s gravitational field and correlate them to subterranean features like aquifers and mineral deposits. These gravity maps are essential for navigation, resource management, and national security.
“We could determine the mass of the Himalayas using atoms,” said Jason Hyon, chief technologist for Earth Science at JPL and director of JPL’s Quantum Space Innovation Center. Hyon and colleagues laid out the concepts behind their Quantum Gravity Gradiometer Pathfinder (QGGPf) instrument in a recent paper in EPJ Quantum Technology.
Gravity gradiometers track how fast an object in one location falls compared to an object falling just a short distance away. The difference in acceleration between these two free-falling objects, also known as test masses, corresponds to differences in gravitational strength. Test masses fall faster where gravity is stronger.
QGGPf will use two clouds of ultra-cold rubidium atoms as test masses. Cooled to a temperature near absolute zero, the particles in these clouds behave like waves. The quantum gravity gradiometer will measure the difference in acceleration between these matter waves to locate gravitational anomalies.
Using clouds of ultra-cold atoms as test masses is ideal for ensuring that space-based gravity measurements remain accurate over long periods of time, explained Sheng-wey Chiow, an experimental physicist at JPL. “With atoms, I can guarantee that every measurement will be the same. We are less sensitive to environmental effects.”
Using atoms as test masses also makes it possible to measure gravity with a compact instrument aboard a single spacecraft. QGGPf will be around 0.3 cubic yards (0.25 cubic meters) in volume and weigh only about 275 pounds (125 kilograms), smaller and lighter than traditional space-based gravity instruments.
Quantum sensors also have the potential for increased sensitivity. By some estimates, a science-grade quantum gravity gradiometer instrument could be as much as ten times more sensitive at measuring gravity than classical sensors.
The main purpose of this technology validation mission, scheduled to launch near the end of the decade, will be to test a collection of novel technologies for manipulating interactions between light and matter at the atomic scale.
“No one has tried to fly one of these instruments yet,” said Ben Stray, a postdoctoral researcher at JPL. “We need to fly it so that we can figure out how well it will operate, and that will allow us to not only advance the quantum gravity gradiometer, but also quantum technology in general.”
This technology development project involves significant collaborations between NASA and small businesses. The team at JPL is working with AOSense and Infleqtion to advance the sensor head technology, while NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland is working with Vector Atomic to advance the laser optical system.
Ultimately, the innovations achieved during this pathfinder mission could enhance our ability to study Earth, and our ability to understand distant planets and the role gravity plays in shaping the cosmos. “The QGGPf instrument will lead to planetary science applications and fundamental physics applications,” said Hyon.
To learn more about ESTO visit: https://esto.nasa.gov
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Last Updated Apr 15, 2025 Editor NASA Science Editorial Team Contact Gage Taylor gage.taylor@nasa.gov Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
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By NASA
NASA’s SpaceX 32nd commercial resupply services mission, scheduled to lift off from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in April, is heading to the International Space Station with experiments that include research on whether plant DNA responses in space correlate to human aging and disease, and measuring the precise effects of gravity on time.
Discover more details about the two experiments’ potential impacts on space exploration and how they can enhance life on Earth:
“Second Guessing” Time in Space
As outlined in Einstein’s general theory of relativity, how we experience the passage of time is influenced by gravity. However, there is strong evidence to believe this theory may not be complete and that there are unknown forces at play. These new physics effects may manifest themselves in small deviations from Einstein’s prediction.
The ACES (Atomic Clock Ensemble in Space) investigation is an ESA (European Space Agency) mission that aims to help answer fundamental physics questions. By comparing a highly precise atomic clock in space with numerous ground atomic clocks around the world, ACES could take global time synchronization and clock comparison experiments to new heights.
Sponsored by NASA, United States scientists are participating in the mission in various ways, including contributing ground station reference clocks. Scheduled to collect data for 30 months, this vast network of precise clocks is expected to provide fresh insights into the exact relationship between gravity and time, set new limits for unknown forces, and improve global time synchronization.
In addition to investigating the laws of physics, ACES will enable new terrestrial applications such as relativistic geodesy, which involves measuring Earth’s shape and gravitational field with extreme precision. These advancements are critical to space navigation, satellite operations, and GPS systems. For example, without understanding the time fluctuations between Earth and medium Earth orbit, GPS would be progressively less accurate.
A robotic arm will attach ACES to the Columbus Laboratory module aboard the International Space Station. Image courtesy of ESA Probing Plants for Properties to Protect DNA
The APEX-12 (Advanced Plant EXperiment-12) investigation will test the hypothesis that induction of telomerase activity in space protects plant DNA molecules from damage elicited by cellular stress evoked by the combined spaceflight stressors experienced by seedlings grown aboard the space station. It is expected that results will lead to a better understanding of differences between human and plant telomere behavior in space.
Data on telomerase activity in plants could be leveraged not only to develop therapies for age-related diseases in space and on Earth, but also for ensuring food crops are more resilient to spaceflight stress.
Telomeres and telomerase influence cell division and cell death, two processes crucial to understanding aging in humans. Telomeres are the protective end caps of chromosomes. Each time a cell divides, the telomeres shorten slightly, essentially acting as a biological clock for cell aging. Conversely, telomerase is an enzyme that adds nucleotide sequences to the ends of telomeres, lengthening them and counteracting their shortening.
In humans, telomere shortening is linked to various age-related conditions, such as cardiovascular diseases and certain cancers. In astronauts, studies have shown that spaceflight leads to changes in telomere length, with a notable lengthening observed. This phenomenon carries potential implications for astronaut health outcomes. By contrast, plant telomere length did not change during spaceflight, despite a dramatic increase in telomerase activity.
A microscopic image of plant telomeres taken under a fluorescent microscope. The chromosomes are highlighted in blue. The telomeres are highlighted in yellow. Image courtesy of Texas A&M University How this benefits space exploration: Experiments aboard NASA’s SpaceX CRS-32 mission is twofold. One, they have the potential to significantly enhance precision timekeeping, which is necessary to improve space navigation and communication. Two, they can provide insights into how plants adapt to protect DNA molecules from cellular stress caused by environmental factors experienced in spaceflight, in an effort to sustain plant life in space.
How this benefits humanity: The experiments conducted on NASA’s SpaceX CRS-32 mission offer a range of potential benefits to humanity. First, improving precision timekeeping for more accurate GPS technology. Second, capturing data about how telomerase activity correlates to cellular stress in plants, which could lead to assays which better correlate telomerase activity and cellular stress and provide fundamental research to contribute to potential therapies for humans.
Learn more about the investigations:
ACES (Atomic Clock Ensemble in Space)
Atomic Clock Ensemble in Space (ACES) is a European Space Agency (ESA) mission that aims to help answer fundamental physics questions.
APEX-12 (Advanced Plant EXperiment-12)
Advanced Plant EXperiment-12 (APEX-12) will test the hypothesis that induction of telomerase, a protein complex, activity in space protects plant DNA molecules from damage elicited by cellular stress evoked by the combined spaceflight stressors experienced by seedlings grown aboard the space station.
About BPS
NASA’s Biological and Physical Sciences Division pioneers scientific discovery and enables exploration by using space environments to conduct investigations not possible on Earth. Studying biological and physical phenomenon under extreme conditions allows researchers to advance the fundamental scientific knowledge required to go farther and stay longer in space, while also benefitting life on Earth.
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By NASA
Scientists have hypothesized since the 1960s that the Sun is a source of ingredients that form water on the Moon. When a stream of charged particles known as the solar wind smashes into the lunar surface, the idea goes, it triggers a chemical reaction that could make water molecules.
Now, in the most realistic lab simulation of this process yet, NASA-led researchers have confirmed this prediction.
The finding, researchers wrote in a March 17 paper in JGR Planets, has implications for NASA’s Artemis astronaut operations at the Moon’s South Pole. A critical resource for exploration, much of the water on the Moon is thought to be frozen in permanently shadowed regions at the poles.
“The exciting thing here is that with only lunar soil and a basic ingredient from the Sun, which is always spitting out hydrogen, there’s a possibility of creating water,” Li Hsia Yeo, a research scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “That’s incredible to think about,” said Yeo, who led the study.
Solar wind flows constantly from the Sun. It’s made largely of protons, which are nuclei of hydrogen atoms that have lost their electrons. Traveling at more than one million miles per hour, the solar wind bathes the entire solar system. We see evidence of it on Earth when it lights up our sky in auroral light shows.
Computer-processed data of the solar wind from NASA’s STEREO spacecraft. Download here: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20278/ NASA/SwRI/Craig DeForest Most of the solar particles don’t reach the surface of Earth because our planet has a magnetic shield and an atmosphere to deflect them. But the Moon has no such protection. As computer models and lab experiments have shown, when protons smash into the Moon’s surface, which is made of a dusty and rocky material called regolith, they collide with electrons and recombine to form hydrogen atoms.
Then, the hydrogen atoms can migrate through the lunar surface and bond with the abundant oxygen atoms already present in minerals like silica to form hydroxyl (OH) molecules, a component of water, and water (H2O) molecules themselves.
Scientists have found evidence of both hydroxyl and water molecules in the Moon’s upper surface, just a few millimeters deep. These molecules leave behind a kind of chemical fingerprint — a noticeable dip in a wavy line on a graph that shows how light interacts with the regolith. With the current tools available, though, it is difficult to tell the difference between hydroxyl and water, so scientists use the term “water” to refer to either one or a mix of both molecules.
Many researchers think the solar wind is the main reason the molecules are there, though other sources like micrometeorite impacts could also help by creating heat and triggering chemical reactions.
In 2016, scientists discovered that water is released from the Moon during meteor showers. When a speck of comet debris strikes the moon, it vaporizes on impact, creating a shock wave in the lunar soil. With a sufficiently large impactor, this shock wave can breach the soil’s dry upper layer and release water molecules from a hydrated layer below. NASA’s LADEE spacecraft detected these water molecules as they entered the tenuous lunar atmosphere. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab Spacecraft measurements had already hinted that the solar wind is the primary driver of water, or its components, at the lunar surface. One key clue, confirmed by Yeo’s team’s experiment: the Moon’s water-related spectral signal changes over the course of the day.
In some regions, it’s stronger in the cooler morning and fades as the surface heats up, likely because water and hydrogen molecules move around or escape to space. As the surface cools again at night, the signal peaks again. This daily cycle points to an active source — most likely the solar wind—replenishing tiny amounts of water on the Moon each day.
To test whether this is true, Yeo and her colleague, Jason McLain, a research scientist at NASA Goddard, built a custom apparatus to examine Apollo lunar samples. In a first, the apparatus held all experiment components inside: a solar particle beam device, an airless chamber that simulated the Moon’s environment, and a molecule detector. Their invention allowed the researchers to avoid ever taking the sample out of the chamber — as other experiments did — and exposing it to contamination from the water in the air.
“It took a long time and many iterations to design the apparatus components and get them all to fit inside,” said McLain, “but it was worth it, because once we eliminated all possible sources of contamination, we learned that this decades-old idea about the solar wind turns out to be true.”
Using dust from two different samples picked up on the Moon by NASA’s Apollo 17 astronauts in 1972, Yeo and her colleagues first baked the samples to remove any possible water they could have picked up between air-tight storage in NASA’s space-sample curation facility at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and Goddard’s lab. Then, they used a tiny particle accelerator to bombard the dust with mock solar wind for several days — the equivalent of 80,000 years on the Moon, based on the high dose of the particles used.
They used a detector called a spectrometer to measure how much light the dust molecules reflected, which showed how the samples’ chemical makeup changed over time.
In the end, the team saw a drop in the light signal that bounced to their detector precisely at the point in the infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum — near 3 microns — where water typically absorbs energy, leaving a telltale signature.
While they can’t conclusively say if their experiment made water molecules, the researchers reported in their study that the shape and width of the dip in the wavy line on their graph suggests that both hydroxyl and water were produced in the lunar samples.
By Lonnie Shekhtman
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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Explore Hubble Hubble Home Overview About Hubble The History of Hubble Hubble Timeline Why Have a Telescope in Space? Hubble by the Numbers At the Museum FAQs Impact & Benefits Hubble’s Impact & Benefits Science Impacts Cultural Impact Technology Benefits Impact on Human Spaceflight Astro Community Impacts Science Hubble Science Science Themes Science Highlights Science Behind Discoveries Hubble’s Partners in Science Universe Uncovered Explore the Night Sky Observatory Hubble Observatory Hubble Design Mission Operations Missions to Hubble Hubble vs Webb Team Hubble Team Career Aspirations Hubble Astronauts News Hubble News Social Media Media Resources Multimedia Multimedia Images Videos Sonifications Podcasts e-Books Online Activities Lithographs Fact Sheets Posters Hubble on the NASA App Glossary More 35th Anniversary Online Activities 5 Min Read NASA’s Hubble Tracks a Roaming Magnetar of Unknown Origin
This is an artist’s impression of a magnetar, a special type of neutron star with an incredibly strong magnetic field. Credits:
ESA Researchers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have discovered the magnetar called SGR 0501+4516 is traversing our galaxy from an unknown place of origin. Researchers say that this runaway magnetar is the likeliest candidate in our Milky Way galaxy for a magnetar that was not born in a supernova explosion as initially predicted. It is so strange it might even offer clues to the mechanism behind events known as fast radio bursts.
“Magnetars are neutron stars — the dead remnants of stars — composed entirely of neutrons. What makes magnetars unique is their extreme magnetic fields,” said Ashley Chrimes, lead author of the discovery paper published in the April 15 journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. Chrimes is a European Space Agency Research Fellow at the European Space Research and Technology Center in the Netherlands.
Magnetars have comic-book-hero superpowers. A magnetar has a magnetic field about a trillion times more powerful than Earth’s magnetosphere. If a magnetar flew by Earth at half the Moon’s distance, its intense field would wipe out every credit card on our planet. If a human got within 600 miles, the magnetar would become a proverbial sci-fi death-ray, ripping apart every atom inside the body.
The magnetar’s strangeness was identified with the help of Hubble’s sensitive instruments as well as precise benchmarks from ESA’s (European Space Agency) Gaia spacecraft.
Initially, the mysterious magnetar was discovered in 2008 when NASA’s Swift Observatory spotted brief, intense flashes of gamma rays from the outskirts of the Milky Way. The source, which turned out to be one of only about 30 known magnetars in the Milky Way, was dubbed SGR 0501+4516.
This is an artist’s impression of a magnetar, which is a special type of neutron star with an incredibly strong magnetic field. Neutron stars are some of the most compact and extreme objects in the universe. These stars typically pack more than the mass of the Sun into a sphere of neutrons about 12 miles across. The neutron star is depicted as a white-blueish sphere. The magnetic field is shown as filaments streaming out from its polar regions. Illustration: ESA Because magnetars are neutron stars, the natural explanation for their formation is that they are born in supernovae, when a star explodes and can collapse down to an ultra-dense neutron star. This appeared to be the case for SGR 0501+4516, which is located close to a supernova remnant called HB9. The separation between the magnetar and the center of the supernova remnant on the sky is just 80 arcminutes, or slightly wider than your pinky finger when viewed at the end of your outstretched arm.
But a decade-long study with Hubble cast doubt on the magnetar’s birthplace. After initial observations with ground-based telescopes shortly after SGR 0501+4516’s discovery, researchers used Hubble’s exquisite sensitivity and steady pointing to spot the magnetar’s faint infrared glow in 2010, 2012, and 2020. Each of these images was aligned to a reference frame defined by observations from the Gaia spacecraft, which has crafted an extraordinarily precise three-dimensional map of nearly two billion stars in the Milky Way. This method revealed the subtle motion of the magnetar as it traversed the sky.
“All of this movement we measure is smaller than a single pixel of a Hubble image,” said co-investigator Joe Lyman of the University of Warwick, United Kingdom. “Being able to robustly perform such measurements really is a testament to the long-term stability of Hubble.”
By tracking the magnetar’s position, the team was able to measure the object’s apparent motion across the sky. Both the speed and direction of SGR 0501+4516’s movement showed that the magnetar could not be associated with the nearby supernova remnant. Tracing the magnetar’s trajectory thousands of years into the past showed that there were no other supernova remnants or massive star clusters with which it could be associated.
If SGR 0501+4516 was not born in a supernova, the magnetar must either be older than its estimated 20,000-year age, or it may have formed in another way. Magnetars may also be able to form through the merger of two lower-mass neutron stars or through a process called accretion-induced collapse. Accretion-induced collapse requires a binary star system containing a white dwarf: the core of a dead Sun-like star. If the white dwarf pulls in gas from its companion, it can grow too massive to support itself, leading to an explosion — or possibly the creation of a magnetar.
“Normally, this scenario leads to the ignition of nuclear reactions, and the white dwarf exploding, leaving nothing behind. But it has been theorized that under certain conditions, the white dwarf can instead collapse into a neutron star. We think this might be how SGR 0501 was born,” added Andrew Levan of Radboud University in the Netherlands and the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom.
Understanding Fast Radio Bursts
SGR 0501+4516 is currently the best candidate for a magnetar in our galaxy that may have formed through a merger or accretion-induced collapse. Magnetars that form through accretion-induced collapse could provide an explanation for some of the mysterious fast radio bursts, which are brief but powerful flashes of radio waves. In particular, this scenario may explain the origin of fast radio bursts that emerge from stellar populations too ancient to have recently birthed stars massive enough to explode as supernovae.
“Magnetar birth rates and formation scenarios are among the most pressing questions in high-energy astrophysics, with implications for many of the universe’s most powerful transient events, such as gamma-ray bursts, super-luminous supernovae, and fast radio bursts,” said Nanda Rea of the Institute of Space Sciences in Barcelona, Spain.
The research team has further Hubble observations planned to study the origins of other magnetars in the Milky Way, helping to understand how these extreme magnetic objects form.
The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.
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This is an artist’s impression of a magnetar, which is a special type of neutron star with an incredibly strong magnetic field.
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Last Updated Apr 15, 2025 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Contact Media Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
Bethany Downer
ESA/Hubble
bethany.downer@esahubble.org
Garching, Germany
Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute
Baltimore, Maryland
Science Ashley Chrimes
ESA-ESTEC/Radboud University
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By NASA
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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Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
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