The Ring Nebula comes into focus, and it's astounding

https://www.npr.org/2023/08/04/ [login to see] /ring-nebula-james-webb-telescope
Gone are the days when the Ring Nebula looked sort of like a bagel, or a jelly doughnut, a massive astronomical blob holding the secrets of a dying star.

The new images of the famous Ring Nebula from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope are mesmerizing, with glowing rings of gas and wispy trails emanating from the core. We can see it in more clarity than ever, including thousands of clumps that make up its main ring.

"We always knew planetary nebulae were pretty. What we see now is spectacular," Albert Zijlstra, an astrophysics professor at the University of Manchester, said in a statement about the new image.

The image was released by an international team of researchers, including experts from the U.K., France, Canada, the U.S. and other countries. It has given them a lot to study.