We liked it & we put a ring on it 💍 You might remember the Southern Ring Nebula was one of the first images released from Webb. Webb saw two stars within the nebula: 1) the dying star that created the nebula by blowing off its layers, and 2) a companion that orbits it. But now, after carefully studying Webb data, scientists believe that there may be more hidden companions that have helped shape the gas and dust of this nebula, potentially a total of 5 stars! Each of these two views of the Southern Ring combine near- and mid-infrared data from Webb. In the first image, the selected infrared wavelengths highlight the very hot gas that surrounds the two central stars. The central star that created the nebula is shown here in red; the companion is white/blue. In the second image, different infrared wavelengths show the outflows from the star that reach out into space. Read more at the link in our bio. Image descriptions: 1. View of the Southern Ring Nebula. Set on a black background, the planetary nebula appears as a misshapen oval that is slightly angled from top left to the bottom right. Two stars are almost overlapping at the center. The top left star appears white and the bottom right one appears red. A large, opaque white oval surrounds the central stars. It takes up about a quarter of the view. 2. Another view of the Southern Ring Nebula on a black background. Unlike the first image, this image shows one prominent white star at the center. A large translucent pink-and-red irregular oval surrounds it, slightly angled from top left to bottom right. Wispy, wavy material extends outward all around this region, particularly jutting out towards the top and bottom. Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and O. De Marco (Macquarie University), with image processing by J. DePasquale (STScI). #JWST #JamesWebbSpaceTelescope #NASA #SouthernRingNebula #Gas #Dust #Star #Infrared #Space #Nebula