James Webb Just Captured the Cranium Nebula in Unprecedented Detail

Added: 2026-06-04

[00:00:00]This is the Cranium Nebula, and it's just been revealed in two brand new images, both from the James Webb Space Telescope. It's a mysterious little-studied nebula surrounding a dying star, curious but beautiful. It's been nicknamed the Exposed Cranium Nebula because of its gray matter-like appearance that looks creepily like a brain inside a transparent skull, but its official name is Nebula PMR 1. It's about 5,000 light-years away in the Vela constellation. It was first imaged in infrared light over a decade ago by an older infrared telescope in space called Spitzer. However, that telescope was so small compared to JWST that it almost feels unfair to compare these two images. The detail that JWST can reveal is unrivaled, especially in infrared light, and it enhances and emphasizes the nebula's brain-like appearance. To me, it also looks a bit like an explosion trapped inside a bubble, and in some ways that's almost exactly what it is. This whole object is something known as a planetary nebula, which is an object created when gas, space dust, and other materials get violently ejected from a dying star.

[00:01:20]The Cranium Nebula has two distinct regions. The first is an outer shell of gas that was blown off first and mostly consists of hydrogen.

[00:01:30]This is the transparent skull or the bubble part of the object. The inner cloud, the brain or the explosion part, was thrown off the star later, has more structure and texture, and contains a mixture of different gases and elements.

[00:01:46]It's not made of basically pure hydrogen like the skull bubble is. We got two different images of the Cranium from JWST, but both show a distinctive dark lane running vertically through the middle of the nebula. This is what really gives it a brain-like appearance as the nebula is separated into two lobes, the left and right hemispheres of the brain. This dark lane could be related to an outburst or outflow from the central star. Typically, this is twin jets that burst out of the star in opposite directions. The evidence for this idea is more noticeable in this one of the two images where it looks like the inner gases are being ejected outwards. Those two images we have from JWST look different because they were taken with two different instruments on board the telescope. And as a result, they image two different wavelength ranges of infrared light. This image on the left of the comparisons I've been showing you was taken by NIRCam, the Near-Infrared Camera.

[00:02:49]This is better at peeping through the dusty regions and reveals so many more stars and galaxies in the background of the picture, too.

[00:02:58]There's so much to see in the background of this NIRCam image. So, please do let me know if you spot anything particularly cool. But, some of my favorite details include these fiery red wispy structures and the wide variety of colors in the galaxies behind the nebula.

[00:03:16]It's also a slightly better resolution image than the other one we got because it's been taken in a shorter wavelength range of light. And the details visible in the nebula are better resolved and pop just that little bit more with NIRCam. The second image was taken by JWST's detector called MIRI, the Mid-Infrared Instrument. In this image, the dust and gas glows more brightly and is more prominent in the image, blocking a lot of that background objects. Those background objects also tend to emit less light in mid-infrared ranges. So, those galaxies and stars all appear a little bit fainter. And the colors tend to be shifted more to the green and blue parts of the spectrum. It's really fun to compare and contrast how the same parts of the images look in the two different wavelength ranges. And again, shout me out in the comments if you notice any particularly striking differences. There's also still a lot we don't know about this nebula. We do know that the central star reached the latter stages of its life and threw off the material to create the nebula. And Webb has captured a beautiful moment in the decline of this star during what is a fairly fast and dynamic process in cosmic terms at least. The ultimate fate of the star though depends on how massive it is and we don't know this yet. If it's massive enough, it will eventually explode in a glorious supernova explosion. But a less massive star will just continue to shed its outer layers until only its core remains as a white dwarf star. For example, our sun is a less massive star that falls into this second category and in a few billion years this is what will become of our star. We also do know that the central star is a type of star known as a Wolf-Rayet. The same type of object that have starred in other JWST images, often featuring these awesome ring systems around them. So, check out the links at the end of the video to learn more about what those images show. I hope you enjoyed looking at this brainy object in space and if you did, please consider subscribing, commenting, or even picking up a mug or something else cool with some of our awesome art on it.

[00:05:27]Until next time, stay safe team. I'll see you soon. Bye.

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