Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, K. Pontoppidan/JPL Image processing: A. Pagan (STScI)

This image shows the center of the Serpens Nebula as seen by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam).

The Serpens Nebula, located 1,300 light-years from Earth, is home to a particularly dense cluster of newly forming stars (~100,000 years old), some of which will eventually grow to the mass of our Sun. Webb’s image of this nebula revealed a grouping of aligned protostellar outflows (seen in the top left). These jets are signified by bright clumpy streaks that appear red, which are shock waves from the jet hitting surrounding gas and dust.

In this image, throughout the region, filaments and wisps of different hues represent reflected starlight from still-forming protostars within the cloud. In some areas, there is dust in front of that reflection, which appears here with an orange, diffuse shade.

Provider: Space Telescope Science Institute

Image Source: https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2024/news-2024-115

Curator: STScI, Baltimore, MD, USA

Image Use Policy: https://www.stsci.edu/copyright