What it is: IC 348, a star-forming reflection nebula
Where it is: 1,000 light-years away in the constellation Perseus
When it was shared: Sept. 15, 2026.
Behold: one of the largest panoramas from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) released to date. This busy and breathtaking image offers a remarkably detailed view of IC 348, a nearby stellar nursery where astronomers are investigating some of the smallest objects produced by star formation.
IC 348 is one of the closest stellar nurseries to Earth and appears in this near-infrared image as an intricate landscape of stars, glowing material and sweeping clouds of gas and dust.
Across the scene, young stars punctuate the dark and luminous clouds. The concentration is greatest around the center, where bright stars show JWST's distinctive diffraction spikes — a result of the telescope's optical structure. In ...
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