Webb scratches under Cat’s Paw Nebula for third anniversary

Webb’s NIRCam instrument was used to look at this particular area of the Cat’s Paw Nebula, which just scratches the surface of the telescope’s three years of groundbreaking science. 

A star formation flex

The progression from a large molecular cloud to massive stars entails multiple steps, some of which are still not well understood by astronomers. Located approximately 4000 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius, the Cat’s Paw Nebula offers scientists the opportunity to study the turbulent cloud-to-star process in great detail. Webb’s observation of the nebula in near-infrared light builds upon previous studies by the NASA/ESA Hubble and retired NASA Spitzer Space Telescopes in visible and infrared light, respectively.

With its sharp resolution, Webb shows never-before-seen structural details and features: Massive young stars are carving away at nearby gas and dust, while their bright starlight is producing a bright nebulous glow represented in blue. It’s a temporary scene where the disruptive young stars, with their relatively short lifespans and luminosity, have a brief but important role in the region’s larger story. As a consequence of these massive stars’ lively behavior, the local star formation process will eventually come to a stop.

The opera house’s intricate structure

Start with the region at top centre, which is nicknamed the ‘Opera House’ for its circular, tiered-like structure. The primary drivers for the area’s cloudy blue glow are most likely toward its bottom: either the light from the bright yellowish stars or from a nearby source still hidden behind the dense, dark brown dust.

Just below the orange-brown tiers of dust is a bright yellow star with diffraction spikes. While this massive star has carved away at its immediate surroundings, it has been unable to push the gas and dust away to greater distances, creating a compact shell of surrounding material.

Look closely to notice small patches, like the tuning fork-shaped area to the Opera House’s immediate left, that contain fewer stars. These seemingly vacant zones indicate the presence of dense foreground filaments of dust that are home to still-forming stars and block the light of stars in the background.

A spotlight on stars

Toward the image’s centre are small, fiery red clumps scattered amongst the brown dust. These glowing red sources mark regions where massive star formation is underway, albeit in an obscured manner.

Some massive blue-white stars, like the one in the lower left region, seem to be more sharply resolved than others. This is because any intervening material between the star and the telescope has been dissipated by stellar radiation.

Near the bottom of this region are small, dense filaments of dust. These tiny clumps of dust have managed to remain despite the intense radiation, suggesting that they are dense enough to form protostars. A small section of yellow at the right notes the location of a still-enshrouded massive star that has managed to shine through intervening material.

Across this entire scene are many small yellow stars with diffraction spikes. Bright blue-white stars are in the foreground of this Webb image, but some may be a part of the more expansive Cat’s Paw Nebula area.

One eye-catching aspect of this Webb image is the bright, red-orange oval at top right. Its low count of background stars implies it is a dense area just beginning its star-formation process. A couple of visible and still-veiled stars are scattered throughout this region, which are contributing to the illumination of the material in the middle. Some still-enveloped stars leave hints of their presence, like a bow shock at the bottom left, which indicates an energetic ejection of gas and dust from a bright source.

Another incredible year of science and images

Webb continued to return on its ambitious science goals over its third year of operations. Unexpected, bright hydrogen emission was found in the galaxy GZ-z13-1, a mere 330 million years after the Big Bang. Showcasing its coronagraph, Webb took direct images of exoplanets in the HR 8799 system which revealed how they likely formed. Then, astronomers discovered a potential new exoplanet in the debris disc around star TWA 7, the first such discovery made with Webb’s coronagraph – but surely not the last. Closer to home, astronomers were able to watch aurorae unfold over a period of just hours on Jupiter.

A remarkable view of a rare Einstein ring, a rich collection of galaxies that acts as a lens on the distant past, a protoplanetary disc sporting powerful stellar winds, and the Sombrero Galaxy seen in an entirely new light were just some of the images released over the past year through which Webb showed us a new view of the cosmos.

In a particular highlight from Webb, the first discovery of young brown dwarf stars outside our galaxy produced a truly breathtaking image of star cluster NGC 602, a vista of its many colours of ionised gas.

More information

Webb is the largest, most powerful telescope ever launched into space. Under an international collaboration agreement, ESA provided the telescope’s launch service, using the Ariane 5 launch vehicle. Working with partners, ESA was responsible for the development and qualification of Ariane 5 adaptations for the Webb mission and for the procurement of the launch service by Arianespace. ESA also provided the workhorse spectrograph NIRSpec and 50% of the mid-infrared instrument MIRI, which was designed and built by a consortium of nationally funded European Institutes (The MIRI European Consortium) in partnership with JPL and the University of Arizona.

Webb is an international partnership between NASA, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

Release on esawebb.org

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