Close-up: The Flower Bud Nebula—NGC 7129 in Cepheus | Webb Telescope
A technicolor dreamscape is revealed in this new image from the NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope. It portrays a stellar nursery known as NGC 7129, a nebula that holds numerous protostars and stars within its fields of gas and dust. Webb captured infrared light that pierces through the dense matter that scatters or absorbs other types of light. This region, rife with stellar objects at various stages of their lives, offers an opportunity to explore how stars shape their surrounding environment.
Also known as the Flower Bud Nebula or Small Cluster Nebula, NGC 7129 is a reflection nebula located about 3,300 light years away in the constellation Cepheus. A young open cluster is responsible for illuminating the surrounding nebula. The region to the left of the central star is filled with hot, atomic hydrogen gas. This creates a golden glow, while the region to the right is packed with cooler, molecular hydrogen. Embedded protostars in the rightmost region eject outflows that shock and heat the region, giving certain areas a red hue and a clumpy texture. Many of these red outflows, ejected as protostars accumulate mass, are visible throughout the image.
The central star and the stars embedded within the golden region are at a more mature stage in their life cycle than the protostars growing to the right of the central star. Their heat breaks down the molecular hydrogen into atoms, driving variations in temperature and color. The coldest, densest gas, where protostars have yet to form, is shown in grey.
Image Processing: A. Pagan (STScI)
Release Date: Oct. 6, 2026
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