NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured thousands of never-before-seen young stars in the Tarantula Nebula, a stellar nursery called 30 Doradus.
The young stars were previously shrouded from view by cosmic dust.
Astronomers are using two of Webb’s spectrographs to take a closer look at this region and determine the chemical makeup of a prominent older star and its surrounding gas.
The Webb telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera, also called NIRCam, has helped researchers see the region “in a new light, including tens of thousands of never-before-seen young stars that were previously shrouded in cosmic dust,” according to NASA.
“Astronomers previously thought this star might be a bit older and already in the process of clearing out a bubble around itself,” according to NASA. “However, NIRSpec showed that the star was only just beginning to emerge from its pillar and still maintained an insulating cloud of dust around itself.
“Without Webb’s high-resolution spectra at infrared wavelengths, this episode of star formation in action could not have been revealed.”
Over two weeks ago, on Aug. 22, NASA released new images of Jupiter captured by the Webb telescope.
The Webb telescope took the photos in July, capturing unprecedented views of Jupiter’s northern and southern lights, and swirling polar haze.
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, a storm big enough to swallow Earth, stands out brightly alongside countless smaller storms.
One wide-field picture is particularly dramatic, showing the faint rings around the planet, as well as two tiny moons against a glittering background of galaxies.
The infrared images were artificially colored in blue, white, green, yellow, and orange, according to the U.S.–French research team, to make the features stand out.
