"All throughout the cosmos, planetary nebulae appear. Displaying many different shapes, they all have the same cause. Inside, a Sun-like star is dying. After blowing off its gaseous outer layers, its core contracts. By contracting, it heats up, eventually ionizing its surroundings. That characteristic ionization marks a full-fledged planetary nebula. The Red Spider Nebula, NGC 6537, is one among countless examples. Discovered in 1882, its two lobes and bright features suggest a binary companion."
"Individual, singlet stars usually make faint, ellipsoidally-shaped nebulae. But a massive, orbital companion can create extended shapes, can carve bipolar ejecta, and can lead to very bright ionization features. The most famous, prominent planetary nebulae are all suspected to contain binary companions. The Red Spider Nebula is no different, as JWST's unparalleled imagery highlights. The diffuse, glowing outer material is molecular hydrogen: shaped into two fully complete lobes."
Planetary nebulae form when Sun-like stars shed their outer gaseous envelopes and their cores contract and heat. The hot, contracting core ionizes expelled gas, producing glowing nebulae with varied morphologies. Binary companions can sculpt ejecta into extended, bipolar shapes and enhance ionization brightness, while single stars tend to make faint, ellipsoidal nebulae. The Red Spider Nebula (NGC 6537) exhibits two complete lobes of molecular hydrogen, bright ionized features, a hot, disk-like dust shroud, and fast outflows near 300 km/s. Ionized iron traces S-shaped shocks from winds colliding with lobes. The central white dwarf likely exceeds 150,000 K.
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