The 'Ghostly' Cat’s Head Nebula in Carina | Hubble & Webb Space Telescopes

The 'Ghostly' Cat’s Head Nebula in Carina | Hubble & Webb Space Telescopes

Cat’s Head Nebula (Webb NIRCam image)

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 with Webb’s signature eight-point diffraction spikes, and a few faint background galaxies.

Cat’s Head Nebula (Webb MIRI image)

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 with Webb’s signature eight-point diffraction spikes.

Cat’s Head Nebula (Hubble WFC3 image)

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. A bright red spot marks the 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. Larger stars with the telescope’s characteristic four-point diffraction spikes are scattered in the background and foreground.

The Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes recently stared at an eerie star-forming scene within the Carina Nebula, a massive gas and dust cloud located approximately 7,500 light-years away from Earth. The two telescopes offer complementary views of the shadowy form, nicknamed the Cat’s Head Nebula. Hubble’s visible-light view shows the cat as a dark, elongated dust pillar and hints of young forming stars, while Webb’s infrared-light imagery unveils many stars and other hidden details.

The NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope’s near-infrared image of the Cat’s Head Nebula peers through the dust to reveal a dense field of stars and the filament’s complex surface structure. Faint, wispy structures to the left of the pillar contain material exposed to intense stellar radiation.

Webb captures a dense field of stars, shown in blue and yellow. Even in near-infrared light, stars are still enshrouded in dust. The bright region marking the cat’s eye may contain an embedded young star. The telescope’s high-resolution imagery reveals faint background galaxies. 

The Cat’s Head Nebula is also presented here visible light by the NASA/European Space Agency/ Hubble Space Telescope. The nebula is an opaque, dark brown pillar of dust. The cat’s glowing red eye may indicate a young star embedded in the dust. The nebula’s right side has a hazy yellow outline, consistent with an illuminated, ionized rim where a process known as photoevaporation may occur. During this process, energetic ultraviolet light impinges on the gas, heating it up and essentially evaporating it.

The background changes from blue and cyan above the pillar to yellow, orange, and red farther down. Hubble’s filters record scattered starlight along with light emitted from oxygen, hydrogen, and sulfur. Differences in gas excitation, absorption by dust, and illumination all contribute to the changing colors.

Arcs of material toward the bottom may have been shaped by ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds from massive stars. Many small stars, and larger stars with Hubble’s characteristic four-point diffraction spikes, are scattered in the background and foreground.

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

Image Processing: J. Depasquale (STScI)
Release Date: Oct. 29, 2026

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