The James Webb Space Telescope captured NGC 346, a star-forming region about 210,000 light years away. One of the features of the region resembles a dragon. Learn more about it in this NASA tour.
VIDEO: Danielle Kirshenblat (STScI)
MUSIC: High Street Music
SCIENCE: NASA, ESA, CSA, Olivia C. Jones (UK ATC), Guido De Marchi (ESTEC), Margaret Meixner (USRA)
IMAGE PROCESSING: Alyssa Pagan (STScI), Nolan Habel (USRA), Laura Lenkić (USRA), Laurie E. U. Chu (NASA Ames)
VIDEO: Danielle Kirshenblat (STScI)
MUSIC: High Street Music
SCIENCE: NASA, ESA, CSA, Olivia C. Jones (UK ATC), Guido De Marchi (ESTEC), Margaret Meixner (USRA)
IMAGE PROCESSING: Alyssa Pagan (STScI), Nolan Habel (USRA), Laura Lenkić (USRA), Laurie E. U. Chu (NASA Ames)
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TechTranscript
00:00 NGC 346, a star cluster that lies within a nebula, is located 210,000 light-years away.
00:09 It resides within the small Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy close to our Milky Way.
00:15 New findings from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope reveal the presence of a much more
00:20 intricate network of gas and dust structures than previously discovered in the area.
00:26 Within this plume of gas is cold molecular hydrogen, which provides a perfect environment
00:31 for young stars to form, some of which can be seen here.
00:35 These young stars generate energy that heats the gas, energizing and splitting the molecular
00:41 hydrogen.
00:42 This effectively carves rough ridges into the gas.
00:46 This area appears to show the head of a dragon spitting out balls of hot gas.
00:51 This eye and the balls of gas are areas of active star formation, which will continue
00:56 to change the environment around it.
01:00 These wisps are more evidence of that environmental change.
01:03 Winds from nearby stars are blowing away material that surrounds still-forming stars, leaving
01:08 these small structures behind.
01:12 Here we see curly ribbons of glowing gas that outline the cold molecular gas of the region.
01:18 These many pillars of creation show how pervasive the stellar erosion is in the region.
01:23 Eventually, over millions of years, the mixture of energized and dense hydrogen will give
01:29 way to thousands of stars and far more of these filamentary structures.
01:33 (dramatic music)