CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - The Webb Space Telescope has captured a plume of gas and dust streaming from a star in the making, with a spiral galaxy as a stunning backdrop.
Webb Space Telescope captures a star in the making and a galaxy far, far away
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - The Webb Space Telescope has captured a plume of gas and dust streaming from a star in the making, with a spiral galaxy as a stunning backdrop.
The composite image makes it look as though the overflow of stellar material is the billowing contrail of a rocket on its way to the galaxy. NASA and the European Space Agency released the photo on Monday.
The outflow is about 625 light-years from Earth in one of the closest star-forming regions of our Milky Way galaxy, according to NASA. A light-year is equivalent to almost 6 trillion miles.
Launched in 2021 as the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, Webb observed the scene in the infrared. NASA said in a statement it was "a lucky alignment" of the two unrelated objects.