In space, nobody can hear you scream — or meow, for that matter. This was as true for Félicette — the stray Parisian tuxedo cat who safely completed the world's first (and only) suborbital feline flight, in 1963 — as it is for the gargantuan Cat's Head Nebula, which is featured in stunning new images from the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes.
Rising from the cloudy Carina Nebula some 7,500 light-years from Earth, the Cat's Head Nebula is a column of star-sculpted gas and dust that vaguely resembles a feline sitting with its back to us, coyly turning its head to show off a single red eye. That eye is a young star that's embedded deep within the dust and possibly transforming it before our eyes.
Nebulas like these occur when the radiation from active young stars lights up and erodes the material around them. They are beautiful and ...
English (US)