NASA’s Webb Captures Commotion From Nebula’s Stellar Jets
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured a new image of NGC 7129, a stellar nursery located about 3,300 light-years from Earth.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured a new image of NGC 7129, a stellar nursery located about 3,300 light-years from Earth. Using its high infrared sensitivity, the telescope peered through dense dust clouds to reveal numerous protostars and stars hidden from other instruments. The region features stars in different developmental stages.
The most massive is LkH(alpha) 234, a pre-main-sequence star weighing five to eight times the mass of the Sun. Its outflows and light have carved a 3.5-light-year golden cavity in the surrounding molecular cloud, energizing hydrogen gas to glow and creating a boundary known as a photodissociation region.
To the right of the central star, clumpy matter shown in red hides younger protostars. These protostars eject superheated material that interacts with surrounding matter to create shocks and overlapping outflows. Webb’s high spatial resolution provides more detailed gas and dust filaments than previous observations by NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope.
Astronomers will use the new data to study how stars and protostars influence surrounding gas and dust.
The observatory is an international program led by NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency.
The story so far
Earlier coverage connected by shared names and topics. Follow the dates to see how coverage developed; these links do not imply every article describes the same event.
NASA’s Webb Provides Crash Course on Planet-Shattering CollisionsAstronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have examined a rare group of young stellar systems known as extreme debris disks. These…
Connected by: James Webb Space TelescopeEARLIER COVERAGE- NASA Outlines Langley Research Center Contact Details Along with Recent Mission and Research Updates
NASA provides contact information and web pages for its Langley Research Center, featuring a wide range of news and updates. Recent items…
Connected by: TelescopeEARLIER COVERAGE - NASA Hubble Data Solves Astronomical Cold Case With Discovery of Second-Generation Planet
Researchers using data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have solved an astronomical cold case, discovering that the white dwarf star HS 0209+0832…
Connected by: TelescopeEARLIER COVERAGE - NASA to Stream SpaceX Crew-12 Return, Splashdown Live
NASA and SpaceX plan to undock the Crew-12 mission from the International Space Station no earlier than 8:05 a.m. EDT on Wednesday,…
Connected by: SpaceEARLIER COVERAGE - NOWNASA’s Webb Captures Commotion From Nebula’s Stellar JetsCURRENT UPDATE
Original publication: 6 October 2026 18:30
