Seeing through dust
How Webb’s infrared observations help reveal stars in the act of forming.
The Cosmic Cliffs are not mountains but the edge of a vast star-forming region, NGC 3324, in the Carina Nebula. The James Webb Space Telescope revealed structures hidden behind cosmic dust.
A different kind of light
Visible light is easily scattered and absorbed by dust. Infrared light can pass through some dusty regions, enabling Webb to detect young stars and structures within clouds that ordinary visible-light images cannot reveal.
Not a conventional photograph
Observations in multiple infrared filters are mapped to visible colors. The result is grounded in actual measurements, but its color palette conveys wavelengths that human eyes cannot see directly.
The Cosmic Cliffs
The image captures an edge of NGC 3324, roughly 7,600 light-years from Earth. Energetic young stars sculpt the surrounding gas and dust with radiation and stellar winds.
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