Webb Telescope Images Thousands of Newborn Stars in Lobster Nebula

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured an infrared image showing thousands of newborn stars clustered inside a vast cloud of gas and dust known as the Lobster Nebula, the agency said. The image, released this week, centers on a dense grouping of infant stars called Pismis 24 and reaches a region about 5,500 light-years from Earth.

The snapshot, produced from more than five hours of Webb observing time, reveals stars in a range of sizes and colors embedded in the nebula’s dramatic filaments and pillars. The cloud is so extensive that it spills beyond the telescope’s field of view, underscoring the scale of the star-forming complex.

Webb observes the universe primarily in infrared wavelengths, which lets it peer through dust that obscures visible-light views of stellar nurseries. That capability allowed the telescope to resolve a dense population of young stars and to reveal structures within the nebula’s dusty shell that are shaped by stellar winds and radiation.

Launched in late 2021, Webb is the largest and most powerful space telescope to date. Its instruments are designed to study the formation of stars and planets as well as the atmospheres of exoplanets and the early universe. The new image adds to a growing catalog of Webb observations that astronomers use to probe the conditions and processes that govern star birth.

The Lobster Nebula and Pismis 24 have been studied previously, but Webb’s infrared sensitivity and resolution offer a more detailed look at the youngest, most deeply embedded stars. By identifying stellar populations at different stages of development and mapping the surrounding gas and dust, astronomers can refine models of how massive clouds collapse and fragment into stars.

The image was released by NASA and distributed through news outlets this week. It joins other Webb portraits of star-forming regions that officials and researchers have highlighted since the telescope began its science operations, demonstrating the observatory’s role in advancing understanding of stellar nurseries within the Milky Way.