James Webb telescope monitors thousands of young stars in unprecedented detail in spider nebula

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope observed thousands of unprecedented young stars in an area called the "spider nebula."

NASA shared on Twitter an image of the "star nursery", officially called 30 Doradus, located 161 thousand light years away in the large Magellanic Cloud galaxy, which happens to be the largest and brightest star-forming area in the local group, the galaxies closest to our Milky Way galaxy.

Previous telescopes were able to observe the nebula, which contains dusty yarns, but James Webb's image provides a clearer glimpse of what preceded it.

Astronomers focused three of James Webb's high-resolution infrared tools on the spider-like area.

"Take a moment to stare at thousands of unprecedented young stars in the spider nebula," NASA said via Twitter.

James Webb reveals details of nebula structure and composition, as well as background galaxies. This nebula gives us information about what stars might look like at their peak in our cosmic history.

Viewed by James Webb's Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam), the area resembles a hidden tarantula house, lined with silk.

The nebula cavity stationed in the image of NIRCam appears to have occurred by transmitting radiation from a group of huge young stars, which shimmers in the pale blue colour of the image, according to NASA's statement.

In her statement, NASA continued: 

• "Only the nebula's denser surroundings can resist erosion by these stars' strong stellar winds

• forming columns that appear to point backwards towards the cluster.

• These columns contain very young stars or stars

• which will eventually emerge from their dusty cocoons and take their turn to form the nebula. "

James Webb's near-infrared telescope spectrometer (NIRSpec) captured a very small star doing just that. 

1. Thanks to James Webb's high
2. resolution spectrums of infrared wavelengths
3. scientists were able to capture a loop of star formation during motion.

The spider nebula is known to have long been a favourite among astronomers studying the composition of stars, because it contains a kind of chemical composition similar to the regions of massive star formation when the universe was only a few billion years old, and so the formation of stars was at its peak.

Areas where stars are in the Milky Way do not have the same chemical composition, nor do they produce at the same high-speed rate as a spider nebula.