This stunning picture of the star-forming region closest to Earth is the latest to be released by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). NASA unveiled the image to mark one year since the landmark telescope released its first photograph. It shows an area in the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, 120 parsecs (390 light years) away, that contains roughly 50 young stars — most of which have masses similar to, or less than, that of the Sun.
The vertical and horizontal red streaks on the upper and right-hand side of the image are molecular hydrogen illuminated by jets of material produced by newborn stars. The paler veils of dust in the bottom half of the picture surround a single star larger than the Sun.
When JWST launched in December 2021, it was the most complex and expensive space observatory ever built. Since then, it has produced discoveries that have wowed astronomers, including the most distant galaxies ever seen, which formed near the beginning of the Universe’s history.
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