Tarantula Nebula, James Webb Telescope images
James Webb telescope images taken of the Tarantula Nebula, situated in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Both these images focus on the same region of the nebula but are taken at different infrared wavelengths. This means different features of the nebula are revealed and concealed in the two images. The left image has been taken in near-infrared by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), whilst the image on the right was taken in mid-infrared by Webb's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). The NIRCam image shows a star-forming region with young massive stars shining in blue. To the upper left of the cluster of young stars, and the top of the nebula’s cavity, an older star prominently displays NIRCam’s distinctive eight diffraction spikes. Whilst in the MIR image at longer wavelengths, the young stars are not as visible and cooler gas is seen. Tiny points of light indicate protostars still in the process of formation and hydrocarbons on the edges of dust clouds are shown in purple and blue.
Size: 4810px × 1818px
Location:
Photo credit: © NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: -infrared, 30, 2070, astronomical, astronomy, clouds, clusters, diffraction, dor, doradus, dust, electromagnetic, emr, gas, infrared, instrument, ir, james, lmc, mid-infrared, miri, nebula, ngc, nircam, radiation, region, space, spike, star-forming, stars, tarantula, telescope, universe, wavelengths, webb
