Peaks and pillars rise above the glowing wall of gas, resisting the blistering ultraviolet radiation from the young stars.

The faint “steam” that appears to rise from the celestial “mountains” is actually hot, ionised gas and hot dust streaming away from the nebula due to intense, ultraviolet radiation.

Several prominent features in this image are described below. With MIRI, the organic, soot-like material on the surface of the ridges glows, giving the appearance of jagged rocks.

MIRI reveals structures that are embedded in the dust and uncovers the stellar sources of massive jets and outflows. In MIRI’s view, young stars and their dusty, planet-forming disks shine brightly in the mid-infrared, appearing pink and red. NIRCam – with its crisp resolution and unparalleled sensitivity – unveils hundreds of previously hidden stars, and even numerous background galaxies. The high-energy radiation from these stars is sculpting the nebula’s wall by slowly eroding it away. The cavernous area has been carved from the nebula by the intense ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds from extremely massive, hot, young stars located in the centre of the bubble, above the area shown in this image. Called the Cosmic Cliffs, this rim of a gigantic, gaseous cavity is roughly 7,600 light-years away.

What looks much like craggy mountains on a moonlit evening is actually the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region known as NGC 3324. Captured in infrared light by the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), this combined image reveals previously invisible areas of star birth. Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope combined the capabilities of the telescope’s two cameras to create a never-before-seen view of a star-forming region in the Carina Nebula.

Carina nebula 4k