Webb telescope reveals thousands of newborn stars in Lobster Nebula
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has captured a stunning infrared image of the Pismis 24 star cluster within the Lobster Nebula, showcasing thousands of sparkling newborn stars. Located about 5,500 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius, this region highlights massive star formation sculpted by intense radiation and winds. The image provides rare insights into the evolution of hot young stars.
The James Webb Space Telescope's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) has unveiled a cosmic landscape in the Lobster Nebula, where what looks like a craggy mountaintop shrouded in mist is actually a field of dust and gas being eroded by blistering winds and radiation from massive infant stars. This sparkling scene centers on Pismis 24, a young star cluster in the nebula's core, serving as a vibrant stellar nursery and one of the closest sites of massive star birth.
At the cluster's heart lies Pismis 24-1, once thought to be the most massive known star but now known to consist of at least two stars with masses of 74 and 66 times that of the Sun. These luminous giants, along with other massive stars marked by six-point diffraction spikes, dominate the image, which reveals thousands of jewel-like stars in varying sizes and colors—white, yellow, and red—depending on their type and surrounding dust. Webb also detects tens of thousands of background Milky Way stars.
Super-hot infant stars, some nearly eight times the Sun's temperature, emit scorching radiation and winds that carve a cavity into the nebula's wall, extending beyond the image's view. Dramatic spires of gas and dust resist these forces, with the tallest spanning 5.4 light-years and its tip, 0.14 light-years wide, able to accommodate more than 200 solar systems out to Neptune's orbit. These spires, like fingers pointing toward the young stars, compress material to trigger new star formation.
In the infrared image, cyan represents hot or ionized hydrogen gas heated by the stars, orange denotes dust molecules akin to Earth smoke, red indicates cooler, denser molecular hydrogen, and black marks the densest, non-emitting gas. Wispy white features are dust and gas scattering starlight. Streamers of hot, ionized gas flow from the ridges, while veils of illuminated material float around towering peaks.
Webb, the world's premier space observatory and an international effort led by NASA with the European Space Agency and Canadian Space Agency, probes mysteries from our solar system to the universe's origins.