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Reposted by kaylee

Jasmine 🌌🔭

@astrojaz.bsky.social

my current favorite jwst images 🌌

A star cluster is shown inside a large nebula of many-coloured gas and dust. The material forms dark ridges and peaks of gas and dust surrounding the cluster, lit on the inner side, while layers of diffuse, translucent clouds blanket over them. Around and within the gas, a huge number of distant galaxies can be seen, some quite large, as well as a few stars nearer to us which are very large and bright.

$The image is divided horizontally by an undulating line between a cloudscape forming a nebula along the bottom portion and a comparatively clear upper portion. Speckled across both portions is a starfield, showing innumerable stars of many sizes. The smallest of these are small, distant, and faint points of light. The largest of these appear larger, closer, brighter, and more fully resolved with 8-point diffraction spikes. The upper portion of the image is blueish, and has wispy translucent cloud-like streaks rising from the nebula below. The orangish cloudy formation in the bottom half varies in density and ranges from translucent to opaque. The stars vary in color, the majority of which, have a blue or orange hue. The cloud-like structure of the nebula contains ridges, peaks, and valleys – an appearance very similar to a mountain range. Three long diffraction spikes from the top right edge of the image suggest the presence of a large star just out of view.$

This image of the Ring Nebula, taken by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera, appears as a distorted doughnut. The nebula’s inner cavity hosts shades of blue and green, while the detailed ring transitions through shades of orange in the inner regions and pink in the outer region. The ring’s inner region has distinct filament elements. Stars litter the scene, with a particularly prominent star with 8 long spikes in the top right corner.

$An infrared light echo traveling from the lower left through the upper right of the image. The image is speckled with dozens of white stars, some showing Webb’s signature 8-point diffraction spikes, against the black background of space. The image also shows tightly packed, glowing red filaments that resemble muscle fibers or wood grain.⁣$