Day 15 of the 2024 Space Telescope Advent Calendar
Day 15 of the Space Telescope Advent Calendar 2024: Illuminated from Within This mosaic image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows a nearby star-forming cluster, NGC 1333, about 960 light-years away in the Perseus molecular cloud. Throughout the image, we see large orange patches. This represents a gas that glows in the infrared. These so-called Herbig-Haro objects are created when ionized matter ejected from a young star collides with the surrounding clouds. This is the hallmark of a highly radioactive region in star formation. Many of the young stars in this image are surrounded by disks of gas and dust. which may eventually create planetary systems.
View the full Advent calendar here. A new photo will be revealed every day until December 25th.
