NASA released an image of newborn stars captured by the James Webb Space Telescope to celebrate its one-year anniversary of space exploration.
“In just one year, the James Webb Space Telescope has transformed humanity’s view of the cosmos, peering into dust clouds and seeing light from faraway corners of the universe for the very first time,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a press release Wednesday. “Every new image is a new discovery, empowering scientists around the globe to ask and answer questions they once could never dream of.”
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NASA published an image of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, a space region that’s forming stars. The image shows a region of about 50 stars, the mass of which is similar to or less than that of the sun, located 390 light-years away.
The Webb telescope captured “bipolar jets of molecular hydrogen” displayed as red and purple hues in the upper third and to the right of the image. Cosmic dust creates a “glowing cave of dust” in the lower half of the photograph, created by a star, S1, which NASA reports has notably more mass than Sol.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope launched in December 2021 from French Guiana with the mission of exploring deep space, searching for the first stars and galaxies to capture data about exoplanet atmospheres.
“Webb is an investment in American innovation but also a scientific feat made possible with NASA’s international partners that share a can-do spirit to push the boundaries of what is known to be possible,” Nelson said. “Thousands of engineers, scientists, and leaders poured their life’s passion into this mission, and their efforts will continue to improve our understanding of the origins of the universe — and our place in it.”
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Over the course of a year, NASA’s Webb telescope has documented information on distant space, from some of the farthest galaxies observed to supermassive black holes, resulting in providing answers to questions from the scientific community and proposing new ones in hundreds of scientific papers.
“Webb’s first year of science has not only taught us new things about our universe, but it has revealed the capabilities of the telescope to be greater than our expectations, meaning future discoveries will be even more amazing,” Eric Smith, associate director for research in the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters and Webb program scientist, said in the press release.