Hope your week is starting out stellar. 🤩
Here’s a little inspo from a new
@NASAWebb image that captured a hotbed of star formation in the region NGC 604 using its NIRCam and MIRI instruments.
This concentration of massive stars, combined with its relatively close distance, means NGC 604 gives astronomers an opportunity to study these objects at a fascinating time early in their life. Two hundred of the hottest, most massive kinds of stars, all in the early stages of their lives, are sheltered among NGC 604’s dusty envelopes of gas. These types of stars are B-types and O-types, the latter of which can be more than 100 times the mass of our own Sun. It’s quite rare to find this concentration of them in the nearby universe. In fact, there’s no similar region within our own Milky Way galaxy.
Webb’s near-infrared NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) helps us see the most noticeable features such as tendrils and clumps of emission that appear bright red, extending out from areas that look like clearings, or large bubbles in the nebula. While MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), which was built at JPL, helps us see the larger clouds of cooler gas and dust glow.
#NASA #JPL #MIRICam #JWST #Webb #Universe #Stars #Inspiration
📸 Image Description
Image 1: An image of a nebula as seen from the James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRICam. The nebula is comprised of clumpy, red, filamentary clouds. At its center is an opaque blueish glow with speckles of stars.
Image 2: The same image of a nebula but this time seen through James Webb Space Telescope’s MIRI instrument. The nebula is on the black background of space and is comprised of wispy filaments of light blue clouds. At the center-right of the blue clouds is a large, cavernous bubble. The bottom left edge of this cavernous bubble is filled with hues of pink and white gas. There are hundreds of dim stars that fill the surrounding area of the nebula.