Webb Captures Stellar Jets in Star-Forming Region NGC 7129: A Nursery 3,300 Light-Years Away
NASA has released a new image of the star-forming region NGC 7129 taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. The stellar nursery lies about 3,300 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cepheus. The frame spans roughly 6 arcminutes, about 5.7 light-years across, and shows a young star at its center driving powerful jets of gas into the surrounding cloud.
The colors trace hydrogen in different states: gold marks hot atomic hydrogen heated by the young stars, while red shows cooler molecular hydrogen shocked by the protostellar jets. The bright star near the center, LkHα 234, is estimated at five to eight times the mass of the Sun, and its outflows are carving intricate structures into the gas and dust around it.
The image was captured by Webb's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) on December 17, 2025, combining data from six filters: F115W, F187N, F200W, F335M, F444W, and F470N. Astronomers use views like this to study how massive young stars, through their jets and radiation, shape their surroundings and influence the next generation of stars and planets.
The image comes from the Webb program, a partnership of NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency. It is based on data from observing proposal 12491, with image processing by Alyssa Pagan of the Space Telescope Science Institute, and is credited to NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 韦布空间望远镜近红外相机拍摄的恒星形成区 NGC 7129。图：NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI（公共领域），图像处理：Alyssa Pagan。 / The star-forming region NGC 7129 imaged by the Webb Space Telescope's Near-Infrared Camera. Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI (public domain); image processing by Alyssa Pagan.
