Helix Nebula (VISTA and Webb images)

This image of the Helix Nebula from the Visible and Infrared Telescope for Astronomy (left) shows the full view of the planetary nebula, with a box highlighting the smaller field of view from the James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (right).

[Image description: Two panels showing different views of a planetary nebula. The left panel, labeled VISTA, shows colorful light from a glowing cloud shaped like an American football at 45-degree angle. Its appearance resembles an eye. The outer edges of the nebula are red and clumpy, and traveling in towards the center, they become yellow and golden. The center of the nebula is black and speckled with tiny stars. At three o’clock along the shell of gas, there is a rectangular box around part of the shell. Lines extend from the box to the right, where the image shows thousands of orange and gold comet-like pillars stream leftward from the right, like thin liquid blown up a sheet of glass. These pillars are around the circumference of the arced shell, which forms a partial orange semi-circle at the right. The pillars are more numerous and denser at the right, and darker red.]