What did NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope reveal in its August 17, 2026 observations of NGC 2392, the Lion Nebula, using NIRCam and MIRI, including how the nebula formed about 10,000 years ago from a dying lower-mass oxygen-rich star, how its hot central white dwarf ionizes the

Webb’s NIRCam and MIRI images show NGC 2392—the Lion Nebula—as a far more intricate, evolving planetary nebula than Hubble’s 2000 visible-light view revealed. One date correction: NASA’s release was published August 10, 2026, rather than August 17.

• The nebula began forming roughly 10,000 years ago when a dying, relatively low-mass, oxygen-rich star cast off its outer layers. Its exposed, extremely hot core is now a white dwarf whose radiation ionizes surrounding hydrogen, producing the bright central bubble that reads visually as a lion’s face.

• Hubble had shown the face-like structure and a hazy “mane” of comet-shaped features in visible light. Webb’s high-resolution near- and mid-infrared composite resolves the nebula’s shells, cavities, arcs, gas, and especially its complex dust distribution much more clearly.

• MIRI makes warm dust and its varying structures prominent, while the combined infrared view exposes how dense dust clumps can shield material from the central star’s harsh radiation. Gas and dust are still interacting and being reshaped by stellar radiation and outflows, so the nebula is not a static object.