Red Spider Nebula NGC 6537 (Hubble’s view)

The subject of this month’s ESA/Webb Picture of the Month is NGC 6537, a planetary nebula commonly called the Red Spider Nebula.

The nebula got its name from its reddish colour and distinctive shape, which resembles the narrow body of a spider with four outstretched ‘legs’. This image gives the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s view of the nebula, using observations made in 1997.

Along each of the Red Spider’s ‘legs’ are billowing clouds of gas, which are captured in great detail by Hubble. Each of the wave-like features is estimated to be 100 billion kilometres high, providing evidence for a clash between the gas that surrounds the nebula and its fierce outflowing winds, which scream into space at thousands of kilometres per second.

These winds are powered by the central star of the nebula, which is seen faintly in optical images like this one. The central star was once an ordinary star, but it has evolved into a bare, searingly hot stellar core that has cast off its outer layers to form the nebula.

[Image Description: A planetary nebula. The central star sits within brightly lit pink dust, and thick, darker orange dust clouds surround that. An arm of dust reaches away from the central nebula at the top and bottom of both sides, creating the shape of a four-legged spider. Some dimly-lit dust clouds are visible outside of these arms. Stars appear as white dots scattered on the black background.]