NASA's James Webb snaps a spooky photo of the Red Spider Nebula

Astronomers have shared a spectacular image of a cosmic creepy crawly just in time for spooky season.

Never–before–seen details of the eerie Red Spider Nebula have been revealed by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) ahead of Halloween.

The image was captured using the telescope's Near–InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) and shows the nebula against a background of thousands of stars.

Glowing just brighter than the webs of ionised gas that surround it, the image shows the central star of the Red Spider's heart.

'Out in the darkness of the Universe there are many eerie and ghostly nebulae,' Dr Mikako Matsuura, from Cardiff University's School of Physics and Astronomy, said.

'Among the many so–called "spider nebulae", one stands out for its chilling resemblance to a cosmic creature – the Red Spider Nebula, whose twisted filaments stretch like the legs of a celestial arachnid.'

Picturesque planetary nebula like this one form when ordinary stars like the Sun reach the end of their lives.

After ballooning into cool red giants, these stars shed their outer layers and cast them into space, exposing their extremely hot cores. Ultraviolet light from the central star ionises the cast–off material, causing it to glow.

Webb's new view reveals for the first time the full extent of the nebula's outstretched lobes, which form the 'legs' of the spider.

Stretching over the entirety of the field of view, these lobes are shown to be closed, bubble–like structures that each extend about three light–years.

Outflowing gas from the centre of the nebula has inflated these massive bubbles over thousands of years.

Though only a single star is visible in the Red Spider's heart, the scientists believe a hidden companion star may also lurk there.

Having a stellar friend could explain the nebula's shape, including its characteristic narrow waist and wide outflows, they said.

'The legs are hairy and shine with molecular hydrogen emission, which have escaped from the torus (doughnut–shaped ring), Dr Masuura said.

'It is still unclear why the outflows appear 'hairy'. One possibility is that the outflow from the primary star was not continuous, perhaps because mass transfer from the companion star affected the timing of the outflow.

'Another possibility is that the outflow interacted with the surrounding interstellar medium. Since the interstellar gas is not uniform to begin with, such interactions could cause the outflow to fragment, creating the hair–like structures along the legs.'

Gas is also actively jetting out from the nebula's centre, in an elongated purple 'S' shape centred on the heart of the nebula.

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Previous optical–wavelength images of the same nebula show the star appearing faint and blue.

The near–infrared technology used to capture this new photo brings to light wavelengths that are usually beyond the visible spectrum, providing the spectacular image.

The Red Spider won't be around forever, though – as the planetary nebula phase of a star's life only lasts a few tens of thousands of years.

The team's analysis is published in The Astrophysical Journal. 

WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO EARTH WHEN THE SUN DIES?

Five billion years from now, it's said the Sun will have grown into a red giant star, more than a hundred times larger than its current size. 

Eventually, it will eject gas and dust to create an 'envelope' accounting for as much as half its mass.

The core will become a tiny white dwarf star. This will shine for thousands of years, illuminating the envelope to create a ring-shaped planetary nebula.

While this metamorphosis will change the solar system, scientists are unsure what will happen to the third rock from the Sun.

We already know that our Sun will be bigger and brighter, so that it will probably destroy any form of life on our planet.

But whether the Earth's rocky core will survive is uncertain.