Day 2 of the 2024 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: This image shows the center of the Serpens Nebula, as captured by the James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-InfraRed Camera. The Serpens Nebula, located 1,300 light-years from Earth, is home to a particularly dense cluster of newly forming stars, some of which will eventually grow to the mass of our sun. Webb’s image of this nebula reveals a grouping of aligned protostellar outflows (visible in the top left). These jets are identified by bright, clumpy streaks that appear red, which are shock waves caused when a jet hits the surrounding gas and dust. Throughout this image, filaments and wisps of different hues represent reflected starlight from still-forming protostars within the cloud.
See the full advent calendar here, as a new image will be revealed each day until December 25.
