NASA Webb Telescope

ALT Mid-infrared image of the Cat’s Head Nebula by Webb. A bluish-gray filament of dust is in the center, stretching from the bottom to almost the very top. It has a narrow, irregular shape that resembles a cat sitting with its back toward the viewer and a tail extending downward. The cat’s head is turned toward the right, revealing a white glowing eye. (middle) Near-infrared also by Webb. An orange-brown filament of dust is in the center, stretching from the bottom to almost the very top. On the cat’s left are ghostly filaments of dust. (center) Visible-light image by Hubble. A dark brown, opaque filament of dust is in the center, stretching from the bottom to almost the very top. Approximately halfway down, cutting diagonally across the frame, the background color changes from blue to yellow, orange, and finally red near the bottom.

ALT Image description: A quote by Captain Jean-Luc Picard, played by Patrick Stewart. "I've come to believe that the stars have always been in my favor." - Jean-Luc Picard. The image shows a dense cluster of bright stars, each with six large and two small diffraction spikes, due to the telescope’s optics. They have a variety of sizes depending on their brightness and distance from us in the cluster, and different colors reflecting different types of star. Patches of billowing red gas can be seen in and around the cluster, lit up by the stars. Small stars in the cluster blend into a background of distant stars and galaxies on black.

ALT A nebula made of clouds of gas and dust with stars forming within. In the center and out to the left it is filled with thin, wispy blue gas that forms delicate layers. Around this are thicker orange clouds with dark ridges. Thin red filaments of gas cross the center of the nebula. Glowing bubbles in the gas contain dense, very bright clusters of stars. In the edges, distant stars are visible as bright points on a dark background.

ALT A field full of small galaxies of all shapes against the blackness of space. A few bright white stars show 8 prominent diffraction spikes. A small galaxy at lower right is highlighted with a white box. A shaded triangle extends upward to the corners of a larger box showing a zoom in of the region. Two fuzzy, light blue blobs are at center, with a larger and brighter one at top. Just above the top blob is a white crosshair showing the location where a fast radio burst was detected.

ALT A young star cluster filled with many stars that display Webb’s unique eight-pronged diffraction pattern. At its center is a yellow star which sports the largest diffraction pattern. To the left of the star, there is a region filled with yellow dust and gas that extends from the star to the left border of the image. This yellow region extends from the bottom, covering about two-thirds of the image. The yellow region has several blue stars of different sizes embedded within. The top third, which lies outside of the yellow region, holds a few bright protostars, within dense gray gas. Those stars illuminate the gas, making it appear blue. A few red outflows from other protostars are visible above this grayish-blue region. To the right of the central star, there is a clumpy, flame-like plume of red dust and gas with protostars that emit a soft white light within. The plume is surrounded by more dense gray gas and dust. Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Processing: Alyssa Pagan.