Mom Deserves a Cosmic Treat Today

Love, NASA.

“Red dual opposing jets coming from young stars fill the darker top half of the image. At the bottom center is a glowing pale yellow, cave-like structure, its top tilted toward two o’clock, with a bright star at its center. The dust of the cave structure becomes wispy toward eight o’clock. Above the arched top of the dust cave, 3 groupings of stars with diffraction spikes are arranged.” Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Klaus Pontoppidan (STScI), Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI) (Photo: NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope)

Cosmic Birds of Paradise

Celebrate Mom and one year of exploration by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope with stunning snaps from the Milky Way and beyond.

The detailed close-up of Rho Ophiuchi featured above shows the closest star-forming region to Earth.

“Webb spotted around 50 young stars, many close in mass to our star, giving us a glimpse into the early life of the Sun,” explains NASA. “Dark, dense dust cocoons still-forming protostars, while an emerging stellar newborn (top center) shoots out two huge jets of molecular hydrogen.”

“At the center of the image is a horizontal orange cloud known as Herbig-Haro 46/47 that is uneven with rounded ends, and tilted from bottom left to top right. In the middle of this cloud is a yellow-white blob with 8 reddish-pink diffraction spikes piercing through it. The left lobe of the cloud is thicker. Just off the edge is a tiny red arc that curves in the opposite direction.” Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA. Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI) (Photo: NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope)

Bouncing Baby Stars

“Babies are burping chaos machines, and baby stars are no exception,” jokes NASA. “Within the orange-white splotch at the center of this image are 2 actively forming stars. The two stars are buried deep in a disk of gas and dust that feeds their growth. Over thousands of years, the pair repeatedly gobbled up, then spat out the material around them — producing those fiery orange lobes.”