Images of the Carina Nebula from the Webb and Hubble telescopes paint a stunning view of the universe

A stellar nursery discovered more than 250 years ago will teach astronomers new things about how stars come to life with the help of sharp vision from the James Webb Space Telescope.

The powerful new $10 billion observatory, located in space about 1 million miles from Earth, takes new images of the star-forming region within the Carina Nebula. The image captures incredible detail previously unseen by the Hubble Space Telescope.

The Carina Nebula has been a popular target for study for many years because it exhibits cosmic events lasting for a very short time – only about 50,000 to 100,000 years. The nebula lies in the Milky Way about 7,600 light-years away and is home to other well-known cosmic objects, such as the Keyhole Nebula and the unstable supergiant star, Eta Carinae. Astronomers have given its features several pet names as well, such as Mystic Mountain and Cosmic Cliffs.

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The first stunning cosmic image from the James Webb telescope is here

A new Webb photo (seen at the top of this page) clears a cobweb of gas and dust to show hundreds of never-before-seen stars in the region, with bubbles, cavities, and bursts of more baby stars. The telescope’s ability to penetrate the dust screen is so powerful, it can even capture the light of galaxies lurking far beyond the region, said Amber Straughn, deputy project scientist for Webb, in a NASA presentation on Tuesday.

“Each point of light that we see here is an individual star, unlike our sun, and many of these may also have planets,” he said.

Hubble 2007

Credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble

Webb 2022

Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI

Called the Cosmic Cliffs, the area captured looks like an arid desert landscape, with rusty mountains and canyons stretching out under a starry sky. Huge pillars rise above the glowing walls of gas, and radiation and space weather from newborn stars emit bubbles. Eruptions at the top of the ridge wash away more gas and dust.

These features are at the heart of the gas cavity, the researchers said. But a cosmic tug-of-war through the interaction of gas and debris can occur. Webb’s studies of the Carina Nebula and other nurseries could help researchers solve the ancient mystery of how gas and dust – the raw materials for stars and planets – can also work to prevent new births.

“There’s another side to this story,” said Straughtn. “This same process could serve to erode this material and stop star formation.”

This image is a montage compiled from four different April 1999 Hubble observations.
Credit: NASA / Hubble Heritage Team and Nolan R. Walborn (STScI) / Rodolfo H. Barba (La Plata Observatory, Argentina) / Adeline Caulet (France)

Image of the Carina Nebula, aka the Mystical Mountain, taken by Hubble in 2010.
Credit: NASA/ESA/M. Livio/Hubble 20th Anniversary Team (STScI)

The Carina Nebula, informally known as the Mystical Mountain, was picked up by Hubble.
Credit: Hubble / NASA / ESA / Processing by Judy Schmidt

Webb, a collaboration of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, will observe some of the oldest and faintest light in the universe. Astronomers anticipate Webb will spark a golden age in our understanding of space. The new Carina Nebula photo is one of the first full color images to be released publicly on July 12, marking the start of scientific operations for the observatory.

Scientists have mentioned some of the standout details Webb has revealed in the new photo, such as the odd arc that curves outward from the region. Steam appears to be rising from the sky’s “mountains” – burning gas and dust escaping from the star’s nursery due to ultraviolet radiation.

“We’re seeing examples of structures that, frankly, we don’t even know what they are, like what’s going on here?” Straughtn said, pointing to an element in the picture. “The data is very rich.”

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