CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) 鈥� The has captured a plume of gas and dust streaming from a star in the making, with a spiral galaxy as a stunning backdrop.
The composite image makes it look as though the overflow of stellar material is the billowing contrail of a rocket on its way to the galaxy. NASA and the European Space Agency released the photo on Monday.
The outflow is about 625 light-years from Earth in one of the closest star-forming regions of our Milky Way galaxy, according to NASA. A light-year is equivalent to almost 6 trillion miles.
Launched in 2021 as the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, Webb observed the scene in the infrared. NASA said in a statement it was 鈥渁 lucky alignment鈥� of the two unrelated objects.
NASA's retired Spitzer Space Telescope captured the same shot in 2006, with scientists then dubbing the stellar jet 鈥渢he cosmic tornado.鈥� But it was too fuzzy to make out the background galaxy and other details. Webb is the largest and most powerful observatory ever launched into space.
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Marcia Dunn, The Associated Press
