Pan video: NGC 6702 (NIRCam image)

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s view of planetary nebula NGC 6072 in the near-infrared shows a complex scene of multiple outflows expanding out at different angles from a dying star at the centre of the scene. These outflows push gas toward the equatorial plane, forming a disc.

Astronomers suspect there is at least one other star interacting with the material cast off by the central dying star, creating the abnormal appearance of this planetary nebula.

In this image, the red areas represent cool molecular gas, for example, molecular hydrogen.