Ghostly Cat’s Head Nebula Lurks Within Sight of NASA’s Hubble, Webb

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Ghostly Cat’s Head Nebula Lurks Within Sight of NASA’s Hubble, Webb

Visible-light image of the Cat’s Head Nebula by the Hubble Space Telescope. A dark brown, opaque filament of dust is in the center, stretching from the bottom to almost the very top. It has a narrow, irregular shape that resembles a cat sitting with its back toward the viewer and a tail extending downward. The cat’s head is turned toward the right, revealing a red glowing eye. The top half of the background is bright blue. Approximately halfway down, cutting diagonally across the frame, the background color changes from blue to yellow, orange, and finally red near the bottom. The image is dotted with many small stars. Some larger stars with the telescope’s characteristic four-point diffraction spikes are scattered in the background and foreground.

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope shows an opaque dust pillar edged by a luminous rim of gas. Surrounding blue regions include emission from ionized gas and scattered starlight. The cat’s glowing red eye may indicate a young star embedded in the dust.

Credits:
Image: NASA, ESA, STScI; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

Like a spectral form rising out of a cold mist, NASA’s Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes have captured a hauntingly dynamic star-forming scene. It lies within the vast Carina Nebula, a diffuse star-forming region located about 7,500 light-years away from Earth. The small, select area both telescopes observed is nicknamed the Cat’s Head Nebula because of its resemblance to a cat sitting with its back toward the viewer. The “head” of the cat is turned to the right, revealing a glowing eye.

Though the Cat’s Head Nebula is a temporary scene that will eventually disperse as stars form and evolve over time, the region is packed with information. Hubble and Webb’s complementary views of the Cat’s Head Nebula are helping astronomers learn more about the elusive, chaotic, and complex process known as star formation. 

Visible-light image of the Cat’s Head Nebula by the Hubble Space Telescope. A dark brown, opaque filament of dust is in the center, stretching from the bottom to almost the very top. It has a narrow, irregular shape that resembles a cat sitting with its back toward the viewer and a tail extending downward. The cat’s head is turned toward the right, revealing a red glowing eye. The top half of the background is bright blue. Approximately halfway down, cutting diagonally across the frame, the background color changes from blue to yellow, orange, and finally red near the bottom. The image is dotted with many small stars. Some larger stars with the telescope’s characteristic four-point diffraction spikes are scattered in the background and foreground.
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope shows an opaque dust pillar edged by a luminous rim of gas. Surrounding blue regions include emission from ionized gas and scattered starlight. The cat’s glowing red eye may indicate a young star embedded in the dust.
Image: NASA, ESA, STScI; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

The distinctive “cat’s head” shape of the nebula was likely sculpted over time by the intense ultraviolet radiation and winds from massive stars in the Carina Nebula. As this stellar feedback erodes the surrounding gas and dust, denser material within the feline-shaped pillar resists erosion, at least for now.

Hubble’s visible-light view reveals an opaque, dark brown pillar of dust. The cat’s glowing red eye may indicate a young star that is still partially embedded in dust. A ridge of hazy yellow seems to follow the edge of the filament’s right side. This bright rim is consistent with gas illuminated and ionized by ultraviolet radiation from nearby massive stars, potentially driving a process known as photoevaporation.

The diffuse material surrounding the pillar 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. These color variations reveal a complex mix of excited gas, dust, and stellar illumination.

Near-infrared image of the Cat’s Head Nebula by the James Webb Space Telescope. An orange-brown filament of dust is in the center, stretching from the bottom to almost the very top. It has a narrow, irregular shape that resembles a cat sitting with its back toward the viewer and a tail extending downward. The tail ends at the lower one-third of the image and widens to a squarish dust cloud. The cat’s head is turned toward the right, revealing a yellow glowing eye. The background is mostly blue, with the top right corner revealing the black background of space. On the cat’s left are ghostly filaments of dust. Scattered throughout the view are many yellow and blue stars, some with Webb’s signature eight-point diffraction spikes, and a few faint background galaxies.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s near-infrared view reveals detailed structures in the pillar and many stars, as well as some background galaxies. The glowing yellow eye may be a young star embedded in dust.
Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

Piercing Through Dust’s Darkness

Webb’s near- and mid-infrared images each offer different pieces of information to help create a more well-rounded understanding of the Cat’s Head Nebula. While the nebula’s overall structure is similar to the visible-light Hubble image, the filament becomes more transparent, and its complex surface structure becomes discernable in near-infrared light seen by Webb. On the cat’s left are ghostly wisps of dust and gas, delicate structures exposed to radiation from nearby massive stars.

Webb’s near-infrared view reveals a dense scattering of stars, shown in blue and yellow. Even in infrared light, some stars are still enshrouded in dust to various degrees. The cat’s eye remains conspicuous. The telescope’s high-resolution imagery even shows faint background galaxies, offering a partial view through our Milky Way galaxy and beyond.

Mid-infrared image of the Cat’s Head Nebula by the James Webb Space Telescope. A bluish-gray filament of dust is in the center, stretching from the bottom to almost the very top. It has a narrow, irregular shape that resembles a cat sitting with its back toward the viewer and a tail extending downward. The tail ends at the lower one-third of the image and widens to a triangular peak of dust. The cat’s head is turned toward the right, revealing a white glowing eye. The background is mostly red, with the top left and right corners revealing the black background of space. On the cat’s left is a dome-shaped grouping of faint filaments of dust. Scattered throughout the view are yellow and blue stars, some with Webb’s signature eight-point diffraction spikes.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s mid-infrared view reveals intricate structures within the nebula, traced by the emission from warm dust and carbon-based molecules excited by starlight. Changes in local conditions and compositions cause variations in color and brightness.
Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

In mid-infrared light, emission from warm dust and carbon-based molecules excited by starlight outlines intricate structures within the nebula. Changes in local conditions and compositions lead to variations in color and brightness. Delicate globules and strands to the pillar’s left are particularly evident in this mid-infrared view.

To the right of the pillar, a bright light source is shown as yellow in the mid-infrared image. Likely an infant star embedded in dust, it lies against reddish emission from surrounding material. A narrow filament appears to cross the source, although the image alone cannot establish whether the two are physically related.

The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for more than three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).

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Related Multimedia

Visible-light image of the Cat’s Head Nebula by the Hubble Space Telescope. A dark brown, opaque filament of dust is in the center, stretching from the bottom to almost the very top. It has a narrow, irregular shape that resembles a cat sitting with its back toward the viewer and a tail extending downward. The cat’s head is turned toward the right, revealing a red glowing eye. The top half of the background is bright blue. Approximately halfway down, cutting diagonally across the frame, the background color changes from blue to yellow, orange, and finally red near the bottom. The image is dotted with many small stars. Some larger stars with the telescope’s characteristic four-point diffraction spikes are scattered in the background and foreground.

Image: Cat’s Head Nebula (Hubble WFC3 Image)

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope shows an opaque dust pillar edged by a luminous rim of gas. Surrounding blue regions include emission from ionized gas and scattered starlight. The cat’s glowing red eye may indicate a young star embedded in the dust.

Near-infrared image of the Cat’s Head Nebula by the James Webb Space Telescope. An orange-brown filament of dust is in the center, stretching from the bottom to almost the very top. It has a narrow, irregular shape that resembles a cat sitting with its back toward the viewer and a tail extending downward. The tail ends at the lower one-third of the image and widens to a squarish dust cloud. The cat’s head is turned toward the right, revealing a yellow glowing eye. The background is mostly blue, with the top right corner revealing the black background of space. On the cat’s left are ghostly filaments of dust. Scattered throughout the view are many yellow and blue stars, some with Webb’s signature eight-point diffraction spikes, and a few faint background galaxies.

Image: Cat’s Head Nebula (Webb NIRCam Image)

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s near-infrared view reveals detailed structures in the pillar and many stars, as well as some background galaxies. The glowing yellow eye may be a young star embedded in dust.

Mid-infrared image of the Cat’s Head Nebula by the James Webb Space Telescope. A bluish-gray filament of dust is in the center, stretching from the bottom to almost the very top. It has a narrow, irregular shape that resembles a cat sitting with its back toward the viewer and a tail extending downward. The tail ends at the lower one-third of the image and widens to a triangular peak of dust. The cat’s head is turned toward the right, revealing a white glowing eye. The background is mostly red, with the top left and right corners revealing the black background of space. On the cat’s left is a dome-shaped grouping of faint filaments of dust. Scattered throughout the view are yellow and blue stars, some with Webb’s signature eight-point diffraction spikes.

Image: Cat’s Head Nebula (Webb MIRI Image)

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s mid-infrared view reveals intricate structures within the nebula, traced by the emission from warm dust and carbon-based molecules excited by starlight.



Mosaic of the Cat’s Head Nebula visualization model, composed of 3 strips of Hubble and Webb versions oriented 45 degrees clockwise from vertical. The strip in the top left corner is labeled “Hubble, Visible Light,” the center strip is labeled “Webb, Near-Infrared Light,” and the bottom strip is labeled “Webb, Mid-Infrared Light.” In the top left strip, the cat-shaped filament is dark brown and opaque. The cat’s head is turned toward the right, revealing a red glowing eye. The middle strip shows the filament as orangish-brown, and it lies against a mostly blue background with many yellow and blue points of light. The bottom right strip shows the filament as bluish-gray. The background is mostly red.

Video: Exploring the Cat’s Head Nebula

This visualization explores imagery from NASA’s Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes of the Cat’s Head Nebula, a relatively small, dusty filament containing forming stars located within the massive Carina Nebula.



3-panel image of the Cat’s Head Nebula, a filament of dust that stretches from the bottom to almost the very top. It has a narrow, irregular shape that resembles a cat sitting with its back toward the viewer and its tail extending downward. The cat’s head is turned toward the right, revealing a glowing eye. Each image has a label below it. From left to right: Visible Light - Hubble; Near-Infrared Light - Webb; Mid-Infrared Light - Webb. In the left visible-light image, the filament of dust is dark brown and opaque with a red glowing eye. The top half of the background is blue and the bottom half ranges from yellow to dark orange. The middle near-infrared image shows the filament as orangish-brown with a yellow eye. The background is mostly blue and has many yellow and blue points of light. The right mid-infrared image shows the filament as bluish-gray and its eye as white. The background is mostly red and scattered with yellow and blue points.

Video: Multiwavelength Flight into the Cat’s Head Nebula

This tour glides through imagery from NASA’s Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes of the Cat’s Head Nebula. The dust filament broadly remains the same in shape across the different wavelengths of light, but each view contains different details.



More Carina Nebula Stories and Images

mosaic of the Carina Nebula

The Carina Nebula: Star Birth in the Extreme

This 50-light-year-wide Hubble view of the central region of the Carina Nebula showcases a region of intense star birth and death.

Image of bright eight-pointed stars scattered across a dense orange-brown undulating cloudscape below a deep blue starscape.

“Cosmic Cliffs” in the Carina Nebula (NIRCam)

Captured in infrared light by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), this image reveals previously obscured areas of star birth in the Carina Nebula.

Hubble Captures View of 'Mystic Mountain'

Hubble Captures View of ‘Mystic Mountain’

This turbulent cosmic pinnacle lies within a tempestuous stellar nursery called the Carina Nebula.



Dark, reddish-brown cloud fills the screen stretching from upper-left to filling the bottom of the image. Blue background is dotted with bright-white and yellow-orange stars.

Hubble’s Sparkling New View of the Carina Nebula

This image features an enormous cloud of gas and dust in the Carina Nebula. The region is home to several massive and bright stars, including at least a dozen that are 50 to 100 times the mass of our Sun.

Most of the image is filled with a large, glowing gold and pink to reddish-brown cloud of gas against a hazy white-gray background with scattered pinkish stars.

Explore the Night Sky: Caldwell 92

Better known as the Carina Nebula, Caldwell 92 offers us a wealth of science and beautiful images to explore.


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Last Updated

Oct 29, 2026

Editor
Andrea Gianopoulos
Location
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

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Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

Abigail Major, Christine Pulliam
Space Telescope Science Institute
Baltimore, Maryland

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