The Webb Space Telescope continues to churn out amazing images from deep space.
This time, NASA has released a close-up of the birth of dozens of stars, The Associated Press reported.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson tweeted, “Prepare to be awestruck!” adding that the photo “presents star birth as an impressionistic masterpiece.”
The stars are estimated to be about the size of our sun, the AP reported, with scientists comparing the celestial birth captured by the telescope to that of our closest star.
The cloud that produced the baby stars is called Rho Ophiuchi and is the closest area that produces stars to Earth. It is about 390 light-years from Earth, NASA said.
There are shadows on the new stars, indicating that planets may be forming, the AP reported.
“Our own sun experienced a phase like this, long ago, and now we have the technology to see the beginning of another’s star’s story,” Klaus Pontoppidan said. Pontoppidan was a project scientist with the telescope, the AP reported.
The photos were released to commemorate the end of the telescope’s first year, NASA said.
“In just one year, the James Webb Space Telescope has transformed humanity’s view of the cosmos, peering into dust clouds and seeing light from faraway corners of the universe for the very first time. Every new image is a new discovery, empowering scientists around the globe to ask and answer questions they once could never dream of,” Nelson said.