Cat’s Head Nebula (Webb MIRI image)
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s mid-infrared image traces light from molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and intricate filaments of warm dust. The bluish and greenish areas show where PAHs are excited by starlight. To the right of the pillar, a bright yellow light source is seen against reddish mid-infrared emission. A narrow filament appears to cross the source, although its physical relationship to the source is not established. Several blue points of light are scattered throughout, some with Webb’s characteristic diffraction spikes.
[Image description: Mid-infrared image of the Cat’s Head Nebula by the James Webb Space Telescope. A bluish-gray filament of dust is in the center, stretching from the bottom to almost the very top. It has a narrow, irregular shape that resembles a cat sitting with its back toward the viewer and a tail extending downward. The tail ends at the lower one-third of the image and widens to a triangular peak of dust. The cat’s head is turned toward the right, revealing a white glowing eye. The background is mostly red, with the top left and right corners revealing the black background of space. On the cat’s left is a dome-shaped grouping of faint filaments of dust.]
