The latest image taken by the Webb Space Telescope is one of the most dynamic to date. On Tuesday morning, NASA officials released a snapshot of the observatory falling into the Tarantula Nebula and it’s a beautiful thing. The nebula’s real name is 30 Doradus and it can be seen in its full glory, across about 340 light-years, in the image generating stars and galaxies within its cosmic dust.
“What makes this nebula so interesting to astronomers? Unlike our Milky Way, the Tarantula Nebula is producing new stars at an angry rate,” NASA said in a press release accompanying the image. “Although close to us, it is similar to giant star-forming regions when the universe was only a few billion years old and star formation was at its peak — a period known as the ‘cosmic noon.’ Because tarantulas are close to us, it is easy to study in detail to help us out. in learning more about the universe’s past.”
“Despite thousands of years of stargazing, the process of star formation still holds many mysteries – many due to our previous inability to obtain clear images of what was happening behind the thick clouds of stellar nurseries,” the agency added in its release. . “Webb is already beginning to unearth a world he’s never seen before, and is only beginning to rewrite the story of stellar creation.”
Since it was brought online for use earlier this summer, the Webb Space Telescope has captured images of the most remote regions of space, regions of the universe that scientists have been unable to access.
“If you think about it, it’s further than humanity has ever moved,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson previously said of JWST. “And we are just beginning to understand what Webb can and will do. It will explore objects in the solar system and the atmospheres of exoplanets orbiting other stars, giving us clues as to whether their atmospheres are similar to ours.”
“Our goals with the first images and data from Webb are to showcase the telescope’s powerful instruments and preview the upcoming science mission,” added astronomer Klaus Pontopedan, Webb project scientist at STScI. “They are sure to deliver the long-awaited ‘wow’ to astronomers and the public.”
For more images from the Webb Space Telescope and other cosmic stories, check out the ComicBook Invasion Center here.
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