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Pismis 24: a glittering glimpse of starbirth

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In what appears as a celestial dreamscape, a blue and black sky filled with brilliant stars covers about two thirds of the image. The stars are different sizes and shades of white, beige, yellow, and light orange. Across the bottom third of the scene is a craggy, mountain-like vista with spire-like peaks and deep, seemingly misty valleys. These so-called mountains appear in varying shades of orange, yellow, and brown. Above their soaring spires is a wispy, ethereal white cloud that stretched horizontally across the scene. Steam appears to rise from the mountaintops and join with this cloud. At the top, right corner of the image, a swath of orange and brown structure cuts diagonally across the sky.

Pismis 24: a glittering glimpse of starbirth

This sparkling scene of star birth was captured by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. What appears to be a craggy, starlit mountaintop kissed by wispy clouds is actually a cosmic dust-scape being eaten away by the blistering winds and radiation of nearby, massive, infant stars.

Called Pismis 24, this young star cluster resides in the core of the nearby Lobster Nebula, approximately 5,500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Scorpius. Home to a vibrant stellar nursery and one of the closest sites of massive star birth, Pismis 24 provides rare insight into large and massive stars. This region is one of the best places to explore the properties of hot young stars and how they evolve.

In what appears as a celestial dreamscape, a blue and black sky filled with brilliant stars covers about two thirds of the image. The stars are different sizes and shades of white, beige, yellow, and light orange. Across the bottom third of the scene is a craggy, mountain-like vista with spire-like peaks and deep, seemingly misty valleys. These so-called mountains appear in varying shades of orange, yellow, and brown. Above their soaring spires is a wispy, ethereal white cloud that stretched horizontally across the scene. Steam appears to rise from the mountaintops and join with this cloud. At the top, right corner of the image, a swath of orange and brown structure cuts diagonally across the sky.
This sparkling scene of star birth was captured by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. What appears to be a craggy, starlit mountaintop kissed by wispy clouds is actually a cosmic dust-scape being eaten away by the blistering winds and radiation of nearby, massive, infant stars.
Called Pismis 24, this young star cluster resides in the core of the nearby Lobster Nebula, approximately 5,500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Scorpius. Home to a vibrant stellar nursery and one of the closest sites of massive star birth, Pismis 24 provides rare insight into large and massive stars. This region is one of the best places to explore the properties of hot young stars and how they evolve. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI, A. Pagan (STScI)

At the heart of this glittering cluster is the brilliant Pismis 24-1. It is at the centre of a clump of stars above the jagged orange peaks, and the tallest spire is pointing directly toward it. Pismis 24-1 appears as a gigantic single star, and it was once thought to be the most massive known stars. Scientists have since learned that it is composed of at least two stars, though they cannot be resolved in this image. At 74 and 66 solar masses, respectively, the two known stars are still among the most massive and luminous stars ever seen.

Captured in infrared light by Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera), this image reveals thousands of jewel-like stars of varying sizes and colors. The largest and most brilliant ones with the six-point diffraction spikes are the most massive stars in the cluster. Hundreds to thousands of smaller members of the cluster appear as white, yellow, and red, depending on their stellar type and the amount of dust enshrouding them. Webb also shows us tens of thousands of stars behind the cluster that are part of the Milky Way galaxy.

Super-hot, infant stars (some almost 8 times the temperature of the Sun) blast out scorching radiation and punishing winds that are sculpting a cavity into the wall of the star-forming nebula. That nebula extends far beyond NIRCam’s field of view. Only small portions of it are visible at the bottom and top right of the image. Streamers of hot, ionized gas flow off the ridges of the nebula, and wispy veils of gas and dust, illuminated by starlight, float around its towering peaks. Dramatic spires jut from the glowing wall of gas, resisting the relentless radiation and winds. They are like fingers pointing toward the hot, young stars that have sculpted them. The fierce forces shaping and compressing these spires cause new stars to form within them. The tallest spire spans about 5.4 light-years from its tip to the bottom of the image. More than 200 of our solar systems out to Neptune’s orbit could fit into the width its tip, which is 0.14 light-years. In this image, the color cyan indicates hot or ionised hydrogen gas being heated up by the massive young stars. Dust molecules similar to smoke here on Earth are represented in orange. Red signifies cooler, denser molecular hydrogen. The darker the red, the denser the gas. Black denotes the densest gas, which is not emitting light. The wispy white features are dust and gas that are scattering starlight.

Webb image of Pismis 24 with compass arrows, scale bar, and color key. Image shows brilliant stars against a blue and black sky covering about two thirds of the image. Across the bottom third is a craggy, mountain-like vista with soaring peaks and deep, seemingly misty valleys. A wispy white cloud stretches horizontally across the mountaintops. At bottom left, compass arrows indicate the orientation of the image on the sky. The north arrow points downward in the 6 o’clock direction. The east arrow points in the 3 o’clock direction. At lower right is a scale bar labeled 1 light-year. The length of the bar is a about one-eighth the total width of the image. Below the image is a color key showing which NIRCam filters were used to create the image and which visible-light color is assigned to each filter. From left to right, filters are: F090W is blue; F187N is blue-green; F200W is yellow-green; F335M is orange; and F470N is red.
This sparkling scene of star birth was captured by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. What appears to be a craggy, starlit mountaintop kissed by wispy clouds is actually a cosmic dust-scape being eaten away by the blistering winds and radiation of nearby, massive, infant stars.
Called Pismis 24, this young star cluster resides in the core of the nearby Lobster Nebula, approximately 5,500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Scorpius. Home to a vibrant stellar nursery and one of the closest sites of massive star birth, Pismis 24 provides rare insight into large and massive stars. This region is one of the best places to explore the properties of hot young stars and how they evolve.
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI, A. Pagan (STScI)

Press release from ESA Webb.

ScientifiCult è una Testata Giornalistica registrata presso il Tribunale di Bari numero R.G. 5296/2021 - R.S. 21. Direttrice Responsabile: Alessandra Randazzo

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