File:Weic2212a.jpg

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Author	Space Telescope Science Institute Office of Public Outreach
Copyright holder	Public
Image title	In this mosaic image stretching 340 light-years across, Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) displays the Tarantula Nebula star-forming region in a new light, including tens of thousands of never-before-seen young stars that were previously shrouded in cosmic dust. The most active region appears to sparkle with massive young stars, appearing pale blue. Scattered among them are still-embedded stars, appearing red, yet to emerge from the dusty cocoon of the nebula. NIRCam is able to detect these dust-enshrouded stars thanks to its unprecedented resolution at near-infrared wavelengths. To the upper left of the cluster of young stars, and the top of thenebula’s cavity, an older star prominently displays NIRCam’s distinctive eight diffraction spikes, an artefact of the telescope’s structure. Following the top central spike of this star upward, it almost points to a distinctive bubble in the cloud. Young stars still surrounded by dusty material are blowing this bubble, beginning to carve out their own cavity. Astronomers used two of Webb’s spectrographs to take a closer look at this region and determine the chemical makeup of the star and its surrounding gas. This spectral information will tell astronomers about the age of the nebula and how many generations of star birth it has seen. Farther from the core region of hot young stars, cooler gas takes on a rust colour, telling astronomers that the nebula is rich with complex hydrocarbons. This dense gas is the material that will form future stars. As winds from the massive stars sweep away gas and dust, some of it will pile up and, with gravity’s help, form new stars.
Date and time of data generation	16:00, 6 September 2022
Software used	Adobe Photoshop 22.4 (Macintosh)
File change date and time	11:03, 4 August 2022
Date and time of digitizing	07:20, 7 June 2022
Date metadata was last modified	11:01, 8 August 2022
Source	ESA/Webb
Credit/Provider	NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
Unique ID of original document	xmp.did:41155bc5-3d9b-452a-a334-c3acb478c50d
Copyright status	Copyright status not set
Short title	Tarantula Nebula (NIRCam Image)
Keywords	30 Doradus RMC 136 Tarantula Nebula
Usage terms	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Contact information	outreach@stsci.edu https://esawebb.org ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr Baltimore, MD, 21218 United States 410-338-4444
IIM version	4