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Ever see a baby star? What about 50? Telescope reveals new photos

All of the young stars appear to be no bigger than our sun
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The first anniversary image released Wednesday, July 12, 2023, by Space Telescope Science Institute Office of Public Outreach, shows NASAB次元官网网址檚 James Webb Space Telescope displaying a star birth like itB次元官网网址檚 never been seen before, full of detailed, impressionistic texture. The subject is the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, the closest star-forming region to Earth. (NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Klaus Pon via AP)

The Webb Space Telescope is marking one year of cosmic photographs with one of its best yet: the dramatic close-up of dozens of stars at the moment of birth.

NASA unveiled the latest snapshot Wednesday, revealing 50 baby stars in a cloud complex 390 light-years away. A light-year is nearly 6 trillion miles (9.7 trillion kilometers).

The region is relatively small and quiet yet full of illuminated gases, jets of hydrogen and even dense cocoons of dust with the delicate beginnings of even more stars.

All of the young stars appear to be no bigger than our sun. Scientists said the breathtaking shot provides the best clarity yet of this brief phase of a starB次元官网网址檚 life.

B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 like a glimpse of what our own system would have looked like billions of years ago when it was forming,B次元官网网址 NASA program scientist Eric Smith told The Associated Press.

Smith pointed out that the starlight visible in the image actually left there 390 years ago. On Earth in 1633, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei went on trial in Rome for saying that the Earth revolved around the sun. The Vatican in 1992 acknowledged Galileo was wronged.

This cloud complex, known as Rho Ophiuchi, is the closest star-forming region to Earth and is found in the sky near the border of the constellations Ophiuchus and Scorpius, the serpent-bearer and scorpion. With no stars in the foreground of the photo, NASA noted, the details stand out all the more. Some of the stars display shadows indicating possible planets in the making, according to NASA.

It B次元官网网址減resents star birth as an impressionistic masterpiece,B次元官网网址 NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a tweet.

Webb B次元官网网址 the largest and most powerful astronomical observatory ever launched into space B次元官网网址 has been churning out cosmic beauty shots for the past year. The first pictures from the $10 billion infrared telescope were unveiled last July, six months after its liftoff from French Guiana.

ItB次元官网网址檚 considered the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, orbiting Earth for 33 years. A joint NASA-European Space Agency effort, Webb scans the universe from a more distant perch, 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) away.

Still ahead for Webb: Astronomers hope to behold the earliest stars and galaxies of the universe while scouring the cosmos for any hints of life on planets outside our solar system.

B次元官网网址淲e havenB次元官网网址檛 found one of them yet,B次元官网网址 Smith said. B次元官网网址淏ut weB次元官网网址檙e still only one year into the mission.B次元官网网址

Marcia Dunn, The Associated Press





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