[imagesource:wikimediacommons]

The very first image from the James Webb Space Telescope was released in July last year, so it has been a full year of wonder at the strange miracle that is life in the universe through its infrared eyes.

The image was of a deep field picture of thousands of galaxies in the galactic cluster SMACS 0723, and to say that it bent minds and awed spirits is an understatement.

The telescope has since been able to capture almost 13 billion years of history, time and space again, showing us more depth and detail than ever before.

To celebrate the one-year anniversary of JWST observations on Wednesday (July 12), NASA released another awe-inspiring image, this one showing an incredible stellar nursery and star birth, again, like we’ve never seen before.

Per Space, the image features the closest star-forming region to Earth, the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex. Located 390 light-years from Earth, it’s actually a small and relatively peaceful stellar nursery, but the powerful telescope’s visualisation represents a chaotic close-up of the region.

“The JWST’s image of Rho Ophiuchi allows us to witness a very brief period in the stellar lifecycle with new clarity,” a JWST project scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, Klaus Pontoppidan said in a statement. “Our own Sun experienced a phase like this long ago, and now we have the technology to see the beginning of another’s star’s story.”

Behold:

Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Klaus Pontoppidan (STScI)

What you’re looking at are jets bursting from some of the 50 or so young stars in the stellar nursery impacting surrounding interstellar gas and causing molecular hydrogen to glow red.

These occur as the young stars are ripping free of their natal cocoons comprised of what remains of the gas and dust that formed them. This makes the bright jets almost equivalent to a newborn baby stretching its arms for the very first time.

Nunu.

Most of the stars in the region are of sizes similar to or smaller than our sun, but one star, more massive than ours, lurks in the lower half of the image.

Not so nunu. Here’s NASA Administrator Bill Nelson in a statement:

“In just one year, the James Webb Space Telescope has transformed humanity’s view of the cosmos, peering into dust clouds and seeing the light from faraway corners of the universe for the very first time,” said Nelson. “Every new image is a new discovery, empowering scientists around the globe to ask and answer questions they once could never dream of.”

This image showing stellar birth in a whole new light demonstrates what an incredible first year it has been for the JWST. As the marker for the second year of science, it also suggests that we haven’t seen anything yet.

[source:space]