James Webb Space Telescope Feed Post

Orion Nebula in NIRCam long-wavelength channel aligned

This image shows the full survey of the inner Orion Nebula and Trapezium Cluster made using the NIRCam instrument on the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. This is the long-wavelength colour composite, which focuses on the gas, dust, and molecules in the region with unprecedented sensitivity in the thermal infrared. This young star-forming region is just a million years old and contains thousands of new stars spanning a range of masses from 40 down to less than 0.1 times the mass of the Sun. The most massive and hottest stars in the region, notably the Trapezium in the centre, have sculpted a cavity in the surface of the giant molecular cloud from which they were born, which can be readily seen in this image. The Trapezium stars themselves are less obvious in the long-wavelength mosaic, but their presence is betrayed by the emission from warm dust around them, seen in light brown. The Orion Nebula lies roughly 1300 light years from Earth in the so-called "sword" of the constellation of Orion the Hunter, and the image shows a region that is 4 by 2.75 light years in size. Image description: An image of a young star-forming region filled with with wispy purple, green, and red nebulosity. The purple ionised gas is seen mostly towards the centre, with browns, greens, and reds behind, while the periphery is mostly bright green and darker brown to the left. There is a large spray of yellow, orange, red, and purple towards the top centre, and the nebula fades to near black to the right. There are thousands of stars sprinkled across the field, concentrated towards the centre. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA / Science leads and image processing: M. McCaughrean, S. Pearson