NASA's Webb Scratches Beyond Surface of Cat’s Paw for 3rd Anniversary

Three years of science and we’re only scratching the surface! On our 3rd science anniversary, we’re taking a look at a single “toe bean” of the Cat’s Paw Nebula. This active star-forming region is revealing more about how young stars are shaping the surrounding gas and dust. How massive stars form from molecular clouds is not a well-understood process, and Webb is allowing scientists to see never-before-seen structural details and features within clouds of dust and gas that form new stars. In this section of the Cat’s Paw, massive young stars are carving away nearby dust and gas, nestled within orange-brown loops and tiers of dust, their bright starlight represented in blue. Towards the center of the image (and also in an oval shape at top right) are fiery clumps amongst the brown dust, where massive star formation is still underway. Eventually the very presence of these disruptive stars will cause the local star formation process to stop. Read more: go.nasa.gov/4eGawHD Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI Image description: A section of the Cat’s Paw Nebula, a local star-forming region composed of gas, dust, and young stars. Four roughly circular areas are toward the center of the frame: a small oval toward the top left, a large circle in the top center, and two ovals at bottom left and right. Each circular area has a luminous blue glow, with the top center and bottom left areas the brightest. Brown-orange filaments of dust, which vary in density, surround these four bluish patches and stretch toward the frame’s edges. Small zones, such as to the left and right of the top-center blue circular area, appear darker and seemingly vacant of stars. Toward the center are small, fiery red clumps scattered among the brown dust. Many small, yellow-white stars are spread across the scene, some with eight-pointed diffraction spikes that are characteristic of Webb. A few larger blue-white stars with diffraction spikes are scattered throughout, mostly toward the top left and bottom right. In the top right corner is a bright red-orange oval.