The James Webb Space Telescope JWST has peered into the heart of supernova remnant SNR 0540-69.3 — what remains after a massive star died in a neighboring galaxy. Inside, amid the flying debris, astronomers saw a clear pattern: glowing clumps and voids arranged in a symmetric design. One half looks like a mirror image of the other, but rotated by 189 degrees. Such point symmetry is no accident; it's a trace of powerful jets that plowed through the material during the explosion.

The 'jittering jets' mechanism paints a picture of a chaotic yet orderly process. When a star's core collapses into a neutron star, it doesn't settle down immediately. The newborn object, spinning and wobbling, shoots out narrow beams of particles — jets. These don't fire in one direction; they change direction like a garden hose that slips from your grip. Each pair of jets carves its own channels and cavities into the expanding material. In SNR 0540-69.3, at least three such pairs have been found: one created the main cavities, another made 'nozzles' at a wide angle, and a third may have added asymmetry.

This discovery connects two worlds: the explosions of massive stars and the formation of planetary nebulae. Both share the same signature left by jets. Both show symmetry, cavities, and knots. So nature uses a similar tool regardless of scale. And the Hubble telescope never dreamed of such clarity.