Skip to main content

NASA’s Webb telescope captures the majestic Tarantula Nebula

The most powerful space telescope ever built is continuing to send back dazzling images of the universe from its orbit a million miles from Earth.

The James Webb Space Telescope’s latest stunner shows the Tarantula Nebula, described by NASA as “a raucous region of star birth that resides 170,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small, satellite galaxy of our Milky Way.”

The Tarantula Nebula captured by the James Webb Space Telescope.
As per NASA: In this mosaic image stretching 340 light-years across, Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) displays the Tarantula Nebula star-forming region in a new light, including tens of thousands of never-before-seen young stars that were previously shrouded in cosmic dust. The most active region appears to sparkle with massive young stars, appearing pale blue. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team

The Tarantula Nebula earned its name for the dusty filaments that appear in earlier images captured by other telescopes, and is a favorite of astronomers with a special interest in star formation, NASA said. This is because the nebula’s chemical composition and development are similar to the enormous star-forming regions observed at the universe’s so-called “cosmic noon,” a time when the cosmos was just a few billion years old and star formation was at its height.

Also known as 30 Doradus, the nebula’s cavity, which you can see at the center of the image, has been hollowed out by intense radiation from a cluster of huge young stars that appear in the image as blue dots of light.

“Only the densest surrounding areas of the nebula resist erosion by these stars’ powerful stellar winds, forming pillars that appear to point back toward the cluster,” NASA says.

There’s still much for astronomers to learn about how stars form, but Webb’s advanced infrared cameras are sending back new kinds of images that reveal events behind the thick clouds of stellar nurseries.

“Webb has already begun revealing a universe never seen before, and is only getting started on rewriting the stellar creation story,” NASA said.

The James Webb Space Telescope launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida toward the end of 2021 and is a joint mission involving NASA and its European and Canadian counterparts.

Since reaching its orbital position in deep space earlier in the summer, it’s been beaming back incredible imagery for astronomers to examine as they seek to learn more about the origins of the universe while also searching for planets like our own that could support life.

Editors' Recommendations

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
NASA releases ‘ghostly cosmic hand’ image for Halloween
NASA's image of a ghostly cosmic hand in deep space.

To mark Halloween, NASA has released a spooky image of what it describes as a "ghostly cosmic hand."

It actually shows MSH 15-52, a cloud of energetic particles that resembles a human hand.

Read more
James Webb observes merging stars creating heavy elements
This image from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument highlights GRB 230307A’s kilonova and its former home galaxy among their local environment of other galaxies and foreground stars. The neutron stars were kicked out of their home galaxy and travelled the distance of about 120,000 light-years, approximately the diameter of the Milky Way galaxy, before finally merging several hundred million years later.

In its earliest stages, the universe was composed mostly of hydrogen and helium. All of the other, heavier elements that make up the universe around us today were created over time, and it is thought that they were created primarily within stars. Stars create heavy elements within them in the process of fusion, and when these stars reach the ends of their lives they may explode in supernovas, spreading these elements in the environment around them.

That's how heavier elements like those up to iron are created. But for the heaviest elements, the process is thought to be different. These are created not within stellar cores, but in extreme environments such as the merging of stars, when massive forces create exceedingly dense environments that forge new elements.

Read more
Researchers discover a 320-mph jet stream around Jupiter’s equator
This image of Jupiter from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) shows stunning details of the majestic planet in infrared light. In this image, brightness indicates high altitude. The numerous bright white "spots" and "streaks" are likely very high-altitude cloud tops of condensed convective storms. Auroras, appearing in red in this image, extend to higher altitudes above both the northern and southern poles of the planet. By contrast, dark ribbons north of the equatorial region have little cloud cover. In Webb’s images of Jupiter from July 2022, researchers recently discovered a narrow jet stream traveling 320 miles per hour (515 kilometers per hour) sitting over Jupiter’s equator above the main cloud decks.

The James Webb Space Telescope might be best known for its study of extremely distant galaxies, but it is also used for research on targets closer to home, like planets within our solar system. Last year, the telescope captured a stunning image of Jupiter as seen in the infrared wavelength, and now scientists who have been working on this data have published some of their findings about the planet -- including a brand-new feature that they identified in its atmosphere.

This image of Jupiter from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) shows stunning details of the majestic planet in infrared light. In Webb’s images of Jupiter from July 2022, researchers recently discovered a narrow jet stream traveling 320 miles per hour (515 kilometers per hour) sitting over Jupiter’s equator above the main cloud decks. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Ricardo Hueso (UPV), Imke de Pater (UC Berkeley), Thierry Fouchet (Observatory of Paris), Leigh Fletcher (University of Leicester), Michael H. Wong (UC Berkeley), Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

Read more