Serpens Nebula (NIRCam)

This area is part of the Serpens Nebula, located approximately 1,300 light-years from Earth, and is only 1-2 million years old—very young in cosmic terms. It is home to a particularly dense cluster of newly forming stars (around 100,000 years old), some of which will eventually grow to the mass of our Sun.

In the top left corner of this image, astronomers identified a grouping of aligned protostellar outflows, or jets of gas from newborn stars. These jets are recognizable by the bright, clumpy streaks that appear red, which are shockwaves caused when the jet interacts with the surrounding gas and dust.

Throughout the image, filaments and wisps of different hues represent reflected starlight from still-forming protostars within the cloud. In some areas, there is dust in front of that reflection, which appears in an orange, diffuse shade.

Previously, to earlier telescopes, many of the objects in this image appeared as blobs or were invisible at optical wavelengths. However, Webb’s highly sensitive Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) was able to pierce through the thick dust, resolving the stars and their outflows in unprecedented detail.