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 Cat's Head Nebula, traced by the emission from warm dust and carbon-based molecules excited by starlight.

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

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