The Webb Space Telescope is marking one year of cosmic photographs with one of its best yet – the dramatic close-up of dozens of stars at the moment of birth.
Nasa unveiled the latest snapshot on Wednesday, revealing 50 baby stars in a cloud complex 390 light-years away.
A light-year is nearly six trillion miles (9.7 trillion kilometres).
The region is relatively small and quiet yet full of illuminated gases, jets of hydrogen and even dense cocoons of dust with the delicate beginnings of even more stars.
Here it is: @NASAWebb’s one-year anniversary image. Called Rho Ophiuchi, this area shows about 50 young stars in a cocoon of gas and dust. At 390 light-years away, it’s the closest star-forming region to Earth: https://t.co/A3e2XLx9Ef
Webb continues to #UnfoldTheUniverse. pic.twitter.com/tfXT8J2xBW
— NASA (@NASA) July 12, 2023
All of the young stars appear to be no bigger than our sun.
Scientists said the breathtaking shot provides the best clarity yet of this brief phase of a star’s life.
Nasa program scientist Eric Smith said: “It’s like a glimpse of what our own system would have looked like billions of years ago when it was forming.”
Mr Smith pointed out that the starlight visible in the image actually left there 390 years ago.
On Earth in 1633, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei went on trial in Rome for saying that the Earth revolved around the sun.
It wasn’t until 1992 that the Vatican acknowledged Galileo was wronged.
This cloud complex, known as Rho Ophiuchi, is the closest star-forming region to Earth and is found in the sky near the border of the constellations Ophiuchus and Scorpius, the serpent-bearer and scorpion.
With no stars in the foreground of the photo, Nasa noted, the details stand out all the more.
Some of the stars display shadows indicating possible planets in the making, according to Nasa.
Prepare to be awestruck! @NASAWebb‘s NEW first anniversary image presents star birth as an impressionistic masterpiece with the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, 390 light years away. We’re unlocking the secrets of the universe, one breathtaking image at a time. #UnfoldTheUniverse pic.twitter.com/p94JYBQcd9
— Bill Nelson (@SenBillNelson) July 12, 2023
Nasa administrator Bill Nelson said it “presents star birth as an impressionistic masterpiece”.
Webb — the largest and most powerful astronomical observatory ever launched into space — has been churning out cosmic beauty shots for the past year.
The first pictures from the 10-billion-dollar infrared telescope were unveiled last July, six months after lift-off from French Guiana.
It is considered the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, which has been orbiting Earth for 33 years.
A joint Nasa-European Space Agency effort, Webb scans the universe from a more distant perch, 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometres) away.
Still ahead for Webb, astronomers hope to behold the earliest stars and galaxies of the universe while scouring the cosmos for any hints of life on planets outside our solar system.
“We haven’t found one of them yet,” Mr Smith said. “But we’re still only one year into the mission.”
