Star-forming Region IC 348 in Perseus | Webb & Chandra Space Telescopes

Star-forming Region IC 348 in Perseus | Webb & Chandra Space Telescopes

A new eye-catching compilation of images is being released that features data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory along with a host of other telescopes, including NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.

IC 348 is a star-forming region in our Milky Way galaxy. The wispy structures that dominate the image are interstellar material that reflect the light from the cluster’s stars. The point-like sources in Chandra’s X-ray data are young stars in the cluster developing there.

This is the central portion of the star cluster IC 348. Astronomers combed the cluster in search of tiny, free-floating brown dwarfs: objects too small to be stars but larger than most planets. They found three brown dwarfs that are less than eight times the mass of Jupiter. The smallest weighs just three to four times as much as Jupiter, challenging theories for star formation.

The wispy curtains filling the image are interstellar material reflecting the light from the cluster’s stars—what is known as a reflection nebula. The material also includes carbon-containing molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs. The bright star closest to the center of the frame is actually a pair of type B stars in a binary system, the most massive stars in the cluster. Winds from these stars may help sculpt the large loop seen on the right side of the field of view.

X-rays from Chandra (red, green and blue) and Webb infrared data (pink, orange and purple)

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Major
Release Date: Aug. 21, 2025

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