Sunday, December 21, 2025

Download Free 2026 Hubble & James Webb Space Telescopes Calendar | ESA

Download Free 2026 Hubble & James Webb Space Telescopes Calendar | ESA

High Resolution Digital 2026 Calendar File (48 MB): 
https://esahubble.org/media/archives/calendars/pdf/cal2026.pdf

Low Resolution Digital 2026 Calendar File (7 MB):

Print-Ready 2026 Calendar File (180 MB):

The 2026 calendar features imagery of planets, star clusters, galaxies, and more. It is available for anyone to print, share and enjoy.

To celebrate another year of exciting images and discoveries from the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope and the NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope, ESA/Hubble and ESA/Webb have released a new calendar for 2026 that showcases beautiful imagery from these missions.

The images featured in the calendar are as follows:

Cover: IRAS 04302+2247 is a planet-forming disc located about 525 light-years away in a dark cloud within the Taurus star-forming region. This beautiful Webb image shows an example of a protostar (a young star that is still gathering mass from its environment) surrounded by a protoplanetary disc in which baby planets might be forming.

January: As part of Hubble’s 35th anniversary celebrations, ESA/Hubble published a new image of the star cluster NGC 346, featuring new data and processing techniques. This prolific star factory is in the Small Magellanic Cloud, one of the largest of the Milky Way’s satellite galaxies.

February: This image from Webb features a mega-monster galaxy cluster known as Abell S1063, lying 4.5 billion light-years from Earth in the constellation Grus. The dense collection of heavy galaxies is surrounded by glowing streaks of light, and these warped arcs demonstrate gravitational lensing.

March: To celebrate Webb’s third year of highly productive science in July 2025, astronomers used the telescope to scratch beyond the surface of the Cat’s Paw Nebula (NGC 6334), a massive, local star-forming region.

April: ESA/Hubble revisited the star cluster Messier 72 in April 2025 to celebrate Hubble’s 35th anniversary with new data and image processing techniques.

May: In these Webb images taken in December 2023, our Solar System’s largest planet shows off new details in its auroras (shown in the left image), which are hundreds of times brighter than those seen on Earth.

June: Called Pismis 24, this young star cluster resides in the core of the nearby Lobster Nebula, approximately 5,500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Scorpius. Home to a vibrant stellar nursery and one of the closest sites of massive star birth, Webb provides us with rare insights into large and massive stars.

July: Located around 30 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo, this Hubble image features the Sombrero Galaxy. Viewed nearly edge on, the galaxy’s softly luminous bulge and sharply outlined disc resemble the rounded crown and broad brim of the Mexican hat from which the galaxy gets its name.

August: This image set showcases three views of the Butterfly Nebula, also called NGC 6302. The first and second of the three images shown feature the nebula in optical and near-infrared light captured by Hubble. The Webb image on the right zooms in on the object’s center.

September: This image was shared by ESA/Hubble as part of Hubble’s 35th anniversary celebrations and incorporates new data processing techniques. It shows a small portion of the Eagle Nebula that is 9.5 light-years long and 7,000 light-years away from Earth. This vast stellar nursery displays a towering spire of cosmic gas and dust.

October: Hubble captures in exquisite detail a face-on view of the remarkable-looking galaxy NGC 5335 in this image. This is a flocculent spiral galaxy with patchy streamers of star formation across its disc. A notable bar structure slices across the center of the galaxy.

November: This image shows Webb’s view of the planetary nebula NGC 6072 in the near-infrared. It highlights a complex scene of multiple outflows expanding out from a variety of angles from a dying star at the center of the scene. These outflows push gas toward the equatorial plane, forming a disc.

December:A beautiful but skewed spiral galaxy dazzles in this Hubble image. This galaxy, called Arp 184 or NGC 1961, sits about 190 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Camelopardalis (The Giraffe).

Back Page: This Hubble image captures incredible details in the dusty clouds in the outskirts of a star-forming region called the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy that is located about 160,000 light-years away in the constellations Dorado and Mensa. The Large Magellanic Cloud is the largest of the dozens of small satellite galaxies that orbit the Milky Way.


Image Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)/Hubble, ESA/Webb
Release Date: Dec. 2025

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Planets #Stars #StarClusters #Galaxies #Cosmos #Universe #HubbleSpaceTelescope #HST #JamesWebbSpaceTelescope #JWST #WebbTelescope  #UnfoldTheUniverse #Europe #CSA #Canada #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #AdobePDF #PDF #FreeCalendar #Calendar2026 #STEM #Education

Close-up: Spiral Galaxy NGC 1792 in Columba—A Storm of New Stars | Hubble

Close-up: Spiral Galaxy NGC 1792 in Columba—A Storm of New Stars | Hubble

The subject of this Hubble picture is a stormy and highly active spiral galaxy named NGC 1792. Located over 50 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Columba (the Dove), the bright glow of the galaxy’s center is offset by the sparkling and feathery spiral arms swirling around it.

NGC 1792 is just as fascinating to astronomers as its chaotic look might imply. Classified as a starburst galaxy, it is a powerhouse of star formation with spiral arms rich in star-forming regions. In fact, it is surprisingly luminous for its mass. The galaxy is close to a larger neighbor, NGC 1808, and the strong gravitational interaction between the two is believed to be what has stirred up the reserves of gas in this galaxy. The result is a torrent of star formation, concentrated on the side where gravity has a stronger effect. It is a perfect target for astronomers seeking to understand the complex interactions between gas, star clusters and supernovae in galaxies.

Hubble provided an image of this galaxy in 2020. This image includes additional data collected throughout 2025, providing a deeper view of the tumultuous astrophysical activity taking place in the galaxy. Blossoming red lights in the arms mark out so-called H-alpha emission from dense clouds of hydrogen molecules. Stars form within these clouds and shine powerfully with ultraviolet radiation. They ionize the gas around them, causing the gas to emit a very particular red wavelength of light—a tell-tale sign of new stars.

Image Description: A spiral galaxy, seen partly from the side, with a messy, turbulent appearance. Its disc is made of multiple patchy arms that contain numerous sparkling blue and glowing red regions—star clusters and star-forming nebulae. Thick clumps of dark reddish dust swirl through the disc. The glow of the disc extends out into the dark background, where both distant and nearby stars can be seen.


Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker, F. Belfiore, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST Team, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)
Duration: 30 seconds
Release Date: Dec. 1, 2025

#NASA #Astronomy #Hubble #Space #Science #Stars #Galaxies #Galaxy #NGC1792 #SpiralGalaxies #StarburstGalaxies #Columba #Constellations #Cosmos #Universe #HubbleSpaceTelescope #HST #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #ESA #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Aurora Borealis: View from Sweden

Aurora Borealis: View from Sweden

On Earth, auroras are mainly created by particles originally emitted by the Sun in the form of solar wind. When this stream of electrically charged particles gets close to our planet, it interacts with the magnetic field that acts as a gigantic shield. While it protects Earth’s environment from solar wind particles, it can also trap a small fraction of them. Particles trapped within the magnetosphere—the region of space surrounding Earth in which charged particles are affected by its magnetic field—can be energized and then follow the magnetic field lines down to the magnetic poles. There, they interact with oxygen and nitrogen atoms in the upper layers of the atmosphere, creating the flickering, colorful lights visible in the polar regions here on Earth.

Earth auroras have different names depending on the pole they occur at. Aurora Borealis, or the northern lights, is the name given to auroras around the north pole and Aurora Australis, or the southern lights, is the name given for auroras around the south pole.

The Colors of the Aurora (U.S. National Park Service)

Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. 

Image Credit: Mats Olsson
Mats' website: https://matsolsson.net
Location: Härnösand, Sweden
Release Date: Dec. 17, 2025

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Planets #Earth #Aurora #AuroraBorealis #NorthernLights #MagneticField #Magnetosphere #SolarWind #Sun #Star #Photography #MatsOlsson #Photographer #CitizenScience #Härnösand #Sweden #Sverige #STEM #Education

Close-up: Baby Stars & Gas Bubbles in Large Magellanic Cloud Galaxy | Hubble

Close-up: Baby Stars & Gas Bubbles in Large Magellanic Cloud Galaxy | Hubble

This Hubble picture brings a distant stellar birthplace into focus. This gigantic cloud of cold hydrogen gas is called N159, and it is located about 160,000 light-years away in the constellation Dorado. N159 is one of the most massive star-forming clouds in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy that is the largest of the small galaxies that orbit the Milky Way.

This image shows just a portion of the N159 star-forming complex. The entire complex stretches over 150 light-years across. To put that into perspective, 150 light-years is nearly ten million times the distance between Earth and the Sun!

In the subzero interior of this gas cloud, subjected to the crushing pressure of gravity, young stars begin to gleam in the darkness. Particularly hot and high-mass stars illuminate their birthplaces with red light. This red glow is characteristic of excited hydrogen atoms, to which Hubble is exquisitely sensitive.

Though bright stars in the cloud appear to be blanketed with reddish gas, others seem to lie at the center of a reddish bubble with the dark backdrop of space is visible. These bubbles are evidence of stellar feedback, where young stars fill their habitats with high-energy radiation and blow bubbles with their intense stellar winds.

Image Description: A field filled with stars and covered by clouds of gas and dust. The center and left side are totally blanketed with billowing, bright red clouds. They are opaque some places—showing clusters of stars forming within—and transparent others. Small patches are dark black in color, while a large cloud below the center is mostly pale blue. The right side of the view, mostly gas-free, glitters with stars near and far.


Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)/Hubble & NASA, R. Indebetouw, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)
Duration: 30 seconds
Release Date: Nov. 24, 2025


#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Hubble #Stars #LMCN159 #StellarNursery #LargeMagellanicCloud #LMC #DwarfGalaxy #Dorado #Constellations #Cosmos #Universe #HubbleSpaceTelescope #HST #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Saturday, December 20, 2025

New Shepard Human Spaceflight Mission NS-37: 'Space for Everyone' | Blue Origin

New Shepard Human Spaceflight Mission NS-37: 'Space for Everyone' | Blue Origin

NS-37 Mission Crew
Astronaut Michaela (Michi) Benthaus
New Shepard crew capsule: parachute descent over Texas landing site
New Shepard launch vehicle landing
Blue Origin New Shepard Team

Blue Origin: "Space is for everyone."
"What a way to close out 2025! Our astronauts and the Blue Origin team just completed a successful NS-37 launch. Another step toward making spaceflight accessible for everyone. We just completed our 37th flight of the New Shepard program. This mission marked the first time a wheelchair user has flown above the Kármán Line, the internationally recognized boundary of space." Congratulations to Michaela (Michi) Benthaus! 
The crew onboard also included Joey Hyde, Hans Koenigsmann, Neal Milch, Adonis Pouroulis, and Jason Stansell. New Shepard has flown 92 humans (86 individuals) to space. 

Fly to space: https://www.blueorigin.com/new-shepard/fly


Image Credit: Blue Origin
Release Date: Dec. 20, 2025

#NASA #Space #BlueOrigin #NewShepard #NewShepardRocket #NewShepardCrewCapsule #NS37Mission #NS37Crew #CommercialAstronauts #MichaelaMichiBenthaus #CommercialSpace #LaunchSiteOne #Texas #UnitedStates #FortheBenefitofEarth #JeffBezos #STEM #Education 

Cosmic Dawn with Nobel Laureate John Mather | NASA Goddard

Cosmic Dawn with Nobel Laureate John Mather | NASA Goddard

The James Webb Space Telescope is doing something astronomers dreamed about for decades: peering into our universe’s early past, a period known as cosmic dawn. A new NASA+ documentary—also called Cosmic Dawn—chronicles the inside story of Webb’s design, construction, and launch. John Mather, who won the 2006 Nobel Prize for Physics, proposed the telescope and led its science team for decades. In this interview, Mather talks about his life, his research, and the pre-dawn phone call telling him he had won the Nobel Prize.

Learn more about the Webb Telescope:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/

Video Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Ryan Fitzgibbons (eMITS/AMA): Producer, Editor
Padi Boyd (NASA/GSFC): Host
John Mather (NASA/GSFC): Interviewee
Katie Konans (eMITS): Producer
Jacob Pinter (eMITS/AMA): Project Support
Christian Elliott (eMITS/AMA): Project Support
Duration: 17 minutes
Release Date: Dec. 19, 2025

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #JohnMather #Astrophysicist #Cosmologist #Astrophysics #Cosmos #Universe #JWST #InfraredAstronomy #SpaceTelescopes #ESA #CSA #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Category 4 Typhoon Halong South of Japan | International Space Station

Category 4 Typhoon Halong South of Japan | International Space Station



Category 4 Typhoon Halong is pictured south of Japan from the International Space Station as it orbited 261 miles above the Pacific Ocean. Images taken by astronauts play a crucial role in enhancing scientific research, disaster response, and offer a high-resolution perspective that complements traditional satellite data for a comprehensive view of natural events.

Follow Expedition 74:

Expedition 74 Crew
Station Commander: Mike Fincke (NASA)
JAXA Flight Engineer (Japan): Kimiya Yui
Roscosmos (Russia) Flight Engineers: Oleg Platonov, Sergey-Kud Sverchkov, Sergei Mikaev
NASA Flight Engineers: Zena Cardman, Chris Williams

An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada.

Image Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)
Image Dates: Oct. 7-8, 2025
Release Date: Dec. 4, 2025

#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #Planets #Earth #AstronautPhotography #Astronauts #UnitedStates #Japan #日本 #JAXA #Cosmonauts #Russia #Россия #Roscosmos #HumanSpaceflight #SpaceLaboratory #InternationalCooperation #Expedition73 #Expedition74 #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

New Shepard Human Spaceflight Mission NS-37: Apogee | Blue Origin

New Shepard Human Spaceflight Mission NS-37: Apogee | Blue Origin

Blue Origin: "Space is for everyone."
"What a way to close out 2025! Our astronauts and the Blue Origin team just completed a successful NS-37 launch. Another step toward making spaceflight accessible for everyone. We just completed our 37th flight of the New Shepard program. This mission marked the first time a wheelchair user has flown above the Kármán Line, the internationally recognized boundary of space." Congratulations to Michaela (Michi) Benthaus! 
The crew onboard also included Joey Hyde, Hans Koenigsmann, Neal Milch, Adonis Pouroulis, and Jason Stansell. New Shepard has flown 92 humans (86 individuals) to space. 

Fly to space: https://www.blueorigin.com/new-shepard/fly


Video Credit: Blue Origin
Duration: 41 seconds
Release Date: Dec. 20, 2025

#NASA #Space #BlueOrigin #NewShepard #NewShepardRocket #NewShepardCrewCapsule #NS37Mission #NS37Crew #CommercialAstronauts #MichaelaMichiBenthaus #CommercialSpace #LaunchSiteOne #Texas #UnitedStates #FortheBenefitofEarth #JeffBezos #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS | Closest Approach to Earth | View from Utah

Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS | Closest Approach to Earth View from Utah

3I/ATLAS with its two tails. In the distant background, galaxies in the constellation Leo are visible. The interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS made its closest approach to Earth on December 19, 2025. It passed within about 1.8 astronomical units (approximately 168 million miles) from our planet, providing a unique opportunity for astronomers to study its composition and behavior.

The NASA-funded Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) telescope in Chile discovered the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS on July 1, 2025.

Comet 3I/ATLAS appears relatively normal when compared to Solar System comets, therefore providing more evidence that our Solar System is a somewhat typical one. For example, Comet 3I/ATLAS has a broadly similar chemical composition and ejected dust.

Learn more about Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS:
https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/comets/3i-atlas/

Utah is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northeast, Idaho to the north, and Nevada to the west. 


Image Credit: Dr. Sebastian Voltmer
Location: The state of Utah, United States
Image Details: 74 min total exposure time, L-RGB image captured with a PlaneWave Delta Rho 500 and a ZWO ASI 6200M Pro camera
Dr. Voltmer 's website: https://instagram.com/sebastianvoltmer
Release Date: Dec. 18, 2025

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Comets #InterstellarObjects #InterplanetaryBodies #InterstellarComets #InterstellarComet3IATLAS #InterstellarComet3I #Comet3I #SolarSystem #MilkyWayGalaxy #Leo #Constellations #Universe #Astrophotography #SebastianVoltmer #Astrophotographers #Utah #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

The Andromeda Galaxy and Earth Sprites over Western Australia

The Andromeda Galaxy and Earth Sprites over Western Australia

What’s happening over that tree? 

Two very different things. On the left is the Andromeda galaxy, an object that is older than humanity and will last billions of years into the future. Andromeda (M31) is similar in size and shape to our own Milky Way Galaxy. On the right is a red sprite, a type of lightning that lasts a fraction of a second and occurs above violent thunderstorms. Red sprites were verified as real atmospheric phenomena only about 35 years ago. The tree in the center is a boab. It may live for as long as a thousand years. Boab trees grow naturally in Australia and Africa and are known for being able to store large amounts of water—up to 100,000 liters. This image was captured in November 2025 near Derby in Western Australia.

Image Description: "A dark landscape is back lit by a thunderstorm in the distance. A lone tree is visible near the center. Above the tree are two sky icons: the Andromeda Galaxy on the left and bright red sprites on the right."

Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Australia is Australia's largest state.


Image Credit & Copyright: JJ Rao
JJ Rao's website: 
https://www.instagram.com/nature.by.jj
Release Date: Dec. 16, 2025

#NASA #Science #Planets #Earth #Atmosphere #Thunderstorms #Lightning #Sprites #TLE #Galaxies #AndromedaGalaxy #M31 #Astrophotography #JJRAO #Astrophotographer #CitizenScience #BoabTrees #WesternAustralia #Australia #GSFC #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #APoD

New Shepard Human Spaceflight Mission NS-37 | Blue Origin

New Shepard Human Spaceflight Mission NS-37 | Blue Origin




"What a way to close out 2025! Our astronauts and the Blue Origin team just completed a successful NS-37 launch. Another step toward making spaceflight accessible for everyone. We just completed our 37th flight of the New Shepard program. This mission marked the first time a wheelchair user has flown above the Kármán Line, the internationally recognized boundary of space." Congratulations to Michaela (Michi) Benthaus! 
The crew onboard also included Joey Hyde, Hans Koenigsmann, Neal Milch, Adonis Pouroulis, and Jason Stansell. New Shepard has flown 92 humans (86 individuals) to space. 

Fly to space: https://www.blueorigin.com/new-shepard/fly


Image Credit: Blue Origin
Release Date: Dec. 20, 2025

#NASA #Space #BlueOrigin #NewShepard #NewShepardRocket #NewShepardCrewCapsule #NS37Mission #NS37Crew #CommercialAstronauts #MichaelaMichiBenthaus #CommercialSpace #LaunchSiteOne #Texas #UnitedStates #FortheBenefitofEarth #JeffBezos #STEM #Education

Friday, December 19, 2025

The Integrated Test Lab for NASA's Orion Crew Spacecraft | Lockheed Martin

The Integrated Test Lab for NASA's Orion Crew Spacecraft | Lockheed Martin

The Orion Integrated Test Lab (ITL) brings the spacecraft to life on Earth, offering a one‑to‑one, high‑fidelity replica of NASA's Orion where every cable, switch, display and piece of avionics mirrors the flight vehicle. The lab supports end‑to‑end rehearsals of Artemis II—testing launch, orbit insertion, splashdown and fault‑injection scenarios—while also providing critical training for the Artemis II crew.

Beyond Artemis II, the ITL was essential for Artemis I testing and is already being reconfigured for Artemis III, updating simulations for new flight profiles and rendezvous operations with the human landing system. By pushing Orion to its limits on the ground, the ITL ensures that every system is proven, every risk reduced and every mission launched with confidence. 

Learn more: https://lockheedmartin.com/en-us/news/features/2025/inside-the-orion-integrated-test-lab.html

The Artemis II test flight will send NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen around the Moon and return them safely back home.

The Artemis II crew will be sent on a ten-day Moon journey by April 2026.

NASA's Artemis II Mission:

Video Credit: Lockheed Martin
Duration: 4 minutes, 412 seconds
Release Date: Dec. 18, 2025


#NASA #ESA #CSA #Space #Mars #Moon #ArtemisProgram #ArtemisIIMission #ArtemisII #OrionSpacecraft #ITL #DeepSpace #Astronauts #MoonToMars #Science #SpaceExploration #SolarSystem #HumanSpaceflight #CommercialSpace #LockheedMartin #UnitedStates #Canada #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

How Do Astronauts Unwind in Space? | International Space Station

How Do Astronauts Unwind in Space? | International Space Station

After busy workdays aboard the International Space Station, crew members need time to relax and de-stress. From playing musical instruments and exercising to taking photos of our home planet, watch how astronauts practice some of their favorite hobbies 250 miles above Earth.

Follow Expedition 74:

Expedition 74 Crew
Station Commander: Mike Fincke (NASA)
JAXA Flight Engineer (Japan): Kimiya Yui
Roscosmos (Russia) Flight Engineers: Oleg Platonov, Sergey-Kud Sverchkov, Sergei Mikaev
NASA Flight Engineers: Zena Cardman, Chris Williams

An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada.

Video Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center
Duration: 1 minute, 39 seconds
Release Date: Dec. 19, 2025

#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #Planets #Earth #AstronautPhotography #AstronautMusic #AstronautGames #Astronauts #UnitedStates #Japan #日本 #宇宙航空研究開発機構 #Cosmonauts #Russia #Россия #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #HumanSpaceflight #SpaceLaboratory #InternationalCooperation #Expedition74 #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Star Cluster Westerlund 2 in Carina | Webb & Hubble Space Telescope

Star Cluster Westerlund 2 in Carina | Webb & Hubble Space Telescope

The images in this video showcase the star cluster known as Westerlund 2. It resides in a stellar breeding ground known as Gum 29, located 20,000 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Carina. The cluster measures between 6 light-years and 13 light-years across, and is host to examples of our Milky Way galaxy's hottest, brightest, and most massive stars.

This image on the left uses data from Webb’s Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI). The image on the right showcases a portion of the Hubble image of this same region. It was featured as Hubble’s 25th anniversary image in 2015.


Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, V. Almendros-Abad, M. Guarcello, K. Monsch, the EWOCS team, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), A. Nota (ESA/STScI), Westerlund 2 Science Team, N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb)
Duration: 30 seconds
Release Date: Dec. 19, 2025

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Stars #StarClusters #Westerlund2 #BrownDwarfs #Nebulae #Carina #Constellations #Universe #HubbleSpaceTelescope #HST #JWST #InfraredAstronomy #SpaceTelescopes #ESA #CSA #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Close-up of Westerlund 2: Brown Dwarf Stars in a Glittering Sky | Webb Telescope

Close-up of Westerlund 2: Brown Dwarf Stars in a Glittering Sky | Webb Telescope

This James Webb Space Telescope picture shows a festive-looking region filled with glowing clouds of gas and thousands of sparkling stars. This star cluster, known as Westerlund 2, resides in a stellar breeding ground known as Gum 29, located 20,000 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Carina (the Keel). This image of Westerlund 2 uses data from Webb’s Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI). The cluster measures between 6 light-years and 13 light-years across, and is host to examples of our Milky Way galaxy's hottest, brightest, and most massive stars.

This Webb image captures the bright, brilliant cluster near the top that is packed with young, massive stars whose intense light shapes the entire scene. Below and around them, swirls of orange and red gas form sculpted walls and tangled clouds—material that is being pushed, eroded, and illuminated by the cluster’s powerful radiation. Threaded throughout the view are countless tiny stars just beginning to shine, still surrounded by the gas and dust where they formed. The soft blues and pinks are wisps of thinner material drifting between the denser clouds. Scattered across the field are also many bright stars much closer to us, whose sharp, star-shaped patterns are created by Webb’s optics. The result is a vivid portrait of a stellar nursery in action, where intense energy from newborn stars carves dramatic shapes into the surrounding nebula and drives the ongoing cycle of star formation.

These new Webb observations of Westerlund 2 have revealed, for the first time, the full population of brown dwarfs in this extremely massive young star cluster, including objects as small as about 10 times the mass of Jupiter. This data is allowing astronomers to find several hundred stars with discs in various evolutionary states to facilitate our understanding of how discs evolve and how planets form in such massive young clusters. This image was developed using data from Webb’s program #3523 (M. Guarcello) as part of the Extended Westerlund 1 and 2 Open Clusters Survey (EWOCS).

Image Description: A cluster of stars inside a large nebula. The clouds of gas and dust are predominantly bright red in color and wispy, akin to flames. They are clumped in the bottom-left corner. Other clouds, deeper in the cluster behind many of the stars, appear pale pink. The stars are concentrated in the top half of the image and are mostly small, bright white and six-pointed. They cast blue light over the nebula. Other stars with very long spikes surrounding them lie in the foreground.


Image Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, V. Almendros-Abad, M. Guarcello, K. Monsch, and the EWOCS team,  N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb)
Duration: 30 seconds
Release Date: Dec. 19, 2025

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Stars #StarClusters #Westerlund2 #BrownDwarfs #Nebulae #Carina #Constellations #Astrophysics #Cosmos #Universe #JWST #MIRI #NIRCam #InfraredAstronomy #SpaceTelescopes #ESA #CSA #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Westerlund 2: Brown Dwarf Stars in a Glittering Sky | James Webb Space Telescope

Westerlund 2: Brown Dwarf Stars in a Glittering Sky | James Webb Space Telescope

This James Webb Space Telescope picture shows a festive-looking region filled with glowing clouds of gas and thousands of sparkling stars. This star cluster, known as Westerlund 2, resides in a stellar breeding ground known as Gum 29, located 20,000 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Carina (the Keel). This image of Westerlund 2 uses data from Webb’s Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI). The cluster measures between 6 light-years and 13 light-years across, and is host to examples of our Milky Way galaxy's hottest, brightest, and most massive stars.

This Webb image captures the bright, brilliant cluster near the top that is packed with young, massive stars whose intense light shapes the entire scene. Below and around them, swirls of orange and red gas form sculpted walls and tangled clouds—material that is being pushed, eroded, and illuminated by the cluster’s powerful radiation. Threaded throughout the view are countless tiny stars just beginning to shine, still surrounded by the gas and dust where they formed. The soft blues and pinks are wisps of thinner material drifting between the denser clouds. Scattered across the field are also many bright stars much closer to us, whose sharp, star-shaped patterns are created by Webb’s optics. The result is a vivid portrait of a stellar nursery in action, where intense energy from newborn stars carves dramatic shapes into the surrounding nebula and drives the ongoing cycle of star formation.

These new Webb observations of Westerlund 2 have revealed, for the first time, the full population of brown dwarfs in this extremely massive young star cluster, including objects as small as about 10 times the mass of Jupiter. This data is allowing astronomers to find several hundred stars with discs in various evolutionary states to facilitate our understanding of how discs evolve and how planets form in such massive young clusters. This image was developed using data from Webb’s program #3523 (M. Guarcello) as part of the Extended Westerlund 1 and 2 Open Clusters Survey (EWOCS).

Image Description: A cluster of stars inside a large nebula. The clouds of gas and dust are predominantly bright red in color and wispy, akin to flames. They are clumped in the bottom-left corner. Other clouds, deeper in the cluster behind many of the stars, appear pale pink. The stars are concentrated in the top half of the image and are mostly small, bright white and six-pointed. They cast blue light over the nebula. Other stars with very long spikes surrounding them lie in the foreground.


Image Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, V. Almendros-Abad, M. Guarcello, K. Monsch, and the EWOCS team
Release Date: Dec. 19, 2025

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