The first anniversary image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope displays star birth like it’s never been seen before, full of detailed, impressionistic texture. The subject is the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, the closest star-forming region to Earth. It is a relatively small, quiet stellar nursery, but you’d never know it from Webb’s chaotic close-up. Jets bursting from young stars crisscross the image, impacting the surrounding interstellar gas and lighting up molecular hydrogen, shown in red. Some stars display the telltale shadow of a circumstellar disk, the makings of future planetary systems.
The young stars at the center of many of these disks are similar in mass to the Sun, or smaller. The heftiest in this image is the star S1, which appears amid a glowing cave it is carving out with its stellar winds in the lower half of the image. The lighter-colored gas surrounding S1 consists of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, a family of carbon-based molecules that are among the most common compounds found in space.
For more detail on what is happening where in Webb’s image of Rho Ophiuchi, watch the video tour and read the press release.
Credits
Image
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Klaus Pontoppidan (STScI)
Image Processing
Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Rho Ophiuchi |
| Object Description | Star-forming region |
| R.A. Position | 16:26:30.56 |
| Dec. Position | -24:23:04.16 |
| Constellation | Ophiuchus |
| Distance | 390 light-years away |
| Dimensions | Image is about 0.7 light-years across (6.4 arcminutes) |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | This image was created with Webb data from proposal: (K. Pontoppidan) |
| Instrument | NIRCam |
| Exposure Dates | 07 March 2023, 4-6 April 2023 |
| Filters | F187N, F200W, F335W, F444W, F470N |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | These images are a composite of separate exposures acquired by the James Webb Space Telescope using the NIRCam instrument. Several filters were used to sample wide and narrow wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are: Blue: F187N, Light Blue: F200W, Cyan: F335W, Yellow: F444W, Red: F470N |
| Compass Image |  |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
