NASA Celebrates James Webb Space Telescope's First Anniversary With Stunning New Image; See Here

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on Wednesday shared a new image as James Webb Space Telescope completed one year successfully.

The stunning image captured by the world's most powerful telescope is called 'Rho Ophiuchi'. According to the space agency, the area in the image shows about 50 young stars in a cocoon of gas and dust.

It is located 390 light-years away from Earth and is the the closest star-forming region to the planet.

“In just one year, the James Webb Space Telescope has transformed humanity’s view of the cosmos, peering into dust clouds and seeing light from faraway corners of the universe for the very first time. Every new image is a new discovery, empowering scientists around the globe to ask and answer questions they once could never dream of,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

“On its first anniversary, the James Webb Space Telescope has already delivered upon its promise to unfold the universe, gifting humanity with a breathtaking treasure trove of images and science that will last for decades,” said Nicola Fox, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, according to a press release.

NASA said that Webb’s image shows a region containing approximately 50 young stars, all of them similar in mass to the Sun, or smaller.

The darkest areas are the densest, where thick dust cocoons still-forming protostars. Huge bipolar jets of molecular hydrogen, represented in red, dominate the image, appearing horizontally across the upper third and vertically on the right.

These occur when a star first bursts through its natal envelope of cosmic dust, shooting out a pair of opposing jets into space like a newborn first stretching her arms out into the world. In contrast, the star S1 has carved out a glowing cave of dust in the lower half of the image. It is the only star in the image that is significantly more massive than the Sun.

“Webb’s image of Rho Ophiuchi allows us to witness a very brief period in the stellar lifecycle with new clarity. Our own Sun experienced a phase like this, long ago, and now we have the technology to see the beginning of another’s star’s story,” said Klaus Pontoppidan, who served as Webb project scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, since before the telescope’s launch and through the first year of operations.