Red Spider Nebula (Image credits: Nasa)
Nasa has released a new image of the Red Spider Nebula, revealing never-before-seen details of NGC 6537. Captured with the James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam), the image shows the nebula with remarkable clarity, its full structure stretched across a dense backdrop of thousands of stars. The European Space Agency (ESA) described the picture of the month as a “cosmic creepy crawly.”Planetary nebulae like the Red Spider form when Sun-like stars reach the ends of their lives, shed their outer layers, and expose their hot cores. Ultraviolet radiation from these cores ionises the surrounding gas, causing it to glow for a relatively brief period — only a few tens of thousands of years.A key highlight in Webb’s new view is the nebula’s central star. In older optical images from telescopes such as Hubble, it appears faint and blue. With Webb’s infrared sensitivity, however, it shows up as red, revealing a surrounding shroud of hot dust. Nasa notes that this dust likely forms a disc around the star. Although only one star is visible, researchers believe a hidden companion may also be present, which could help explain the nebula’s narrow waist and wide outflows.Webb’s data also expose, for the first time, the full reach of the nebula’s dramatic lobes — the “legs” of the spider. These lobes, traced in blue by light from H₂ molecules, form closed, bubble-like shells that extend roughly three light-years from end to end. They have expanded over thousands of years as gas has steadily flowed out from the nebula’s centre.Closer to the core, the telescope reveals signs of ongoing activity. An elongated purple “S” shape marks the path of a fast-moving jet that has slammed into older material, helping carve the rippling structure that defines the nebula today.The observations come from Webb GO programme #4571 (PI: J. Kastner), which aims to understand how jets and outflows from central stars shape bipolar planetary nebulae. According to Nasa, NIRCam’s advanced near-infrared capabilities made it possible to uncover these newly revealed structures in the image released on October. 26, 2025.
