Cat’s Head Nebula Seen by Hubble and Webb Together

The Ghostly Cat’s Head Nebula, Seen by Hubble and Webb Together

Just in time for Halloween, two great telescopes have stared at the same eerie scene in space — and each saw something the other could not. On 29 October 2026, ESA/Webb released new views of the Cat’s Head Nebula from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope.

The scene lies within the Carina Nebula, a massive cloud of gas and dust about 7,500 light-years away from Earth, where stars are forming. The small area both telescopes observed is nicknamed the Cat’s Head Nebula because it resembles a cat sitting with its back toward the viewer, its head turned to the right, revealing a glowing eye.

Hubble: a dark pillar and a glowing eye

Hubble’s visible-light view shows the cat as a dark, elongated pillar of dust. It is opaque and dark brown, edged by a hazy yellow ridge. That bright rim is consistent with gas illuminated and ionised by ultraviolet radiation from nearby massive stars, potentially driving a process called photoevaporation, in which energetic light heats gas and essentially evaporates it.

The cat’s glowing red eye may indicate a young star that is still partially embedded in dust. Around the pillar, diffuse material glows blue and cyan above, shifting to yellow, orange and red toward the bottom. Hubble’s filters capture light emitted by oxygen, hydrogen and sulfur, along with starlight scattered by dust — colour variations that reveal a complex mix of excited gas, dust and stellar illumination.

The distinctive shape was likely sculpted over time by intense ultraviolet radiation and winds from massive stars in the Carina Nebula. As that stellar feedback erodes the surrounding gas and dust, denser material within the pillar resists erosion, at least for now.

Webb: through the dust

Webb looks in infrared light, which can pass through dust that blocks visible light. In its near-infrared view, the filament becomes more transparent and its complex surface structure becomes discernible. Webb reveals a dense scattering of stars, shown in blue and yellow, and even faint background galaxies beyond — a partial view through our Milky Way galaxy and beyond. Even in infrared light, some stars remain enshrouded in dust to various degrees, and the cat’s eye remains conspicuous.

In mid-infrared light, emission from warm dust and carbon-based molecules excited by starlight outlines intricate structures within the nebula. Delicate globules and strands to the pillar’s left are particularly evident. To the right of the pillar, a bright yellow light source is likely an infant star embedded in dust, although the image alone cannot establish whether a narrow filament crossing it is physically related.

Neither view alone tells the whole story. Hubble shows where dust blocks light and where gas is being lit up and eroded; Webb shows the stars hidden inside and the warm material outlining the structure. Together, ESA/Webb says, the complementary views are helping astronomers learn more about the elusive, chaotic and complex process of star formation — a temporary scene that will eventually disperse as stars form and evolve.

It is also a lovely lesson in seeing: the same object looks different in different kinds of light, and choosing the right kind of light is often how a question gets answered. Book your first lesson and compare verified science and physics tutors to explore light, telescopes and how stars are born, online, in person or in a group class.

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