This is Pismis 24, a small open star cluster at the core of the Lobster Nebula in the constellation Scorpius.
The orange and brown craggy peaks are huge spires of gas and dust, the European Space Agency wrote in a description of the image.
Erosion within these spires is caused by powerful stellar winds and ultraviolet radiation from the massive newborn stars in the star cluster above.
The brightest star in the cluster, Pismis 24-1, was once thought to be a single star with a mass of 200 to 300 suns.
The darker, blacker regions show gas and dust so thick that even JWST’s infrared sensors cannot penetrate it.
In this new celestial dreamscape from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a finger, a tower, or a craggy mountain peak appear to be pointing at a cluster of bright stars above, as though someone were stargazing deep within the Milky Way.
Pismis 24 is a tiny open star cluster located in the center of the Lobster Nebula in the Scorpius constellation. One of the closest locations to the solar system is this enormous area of interstellar gas and dust, where the most extreme and massive stars in our galaxy burn quickly and die young.
In describing the image, the European Space Agency stated that the orange and brown craggy peaks are enormous spires of gas and dust. The tallest, located in the image’s center, is 54.4 light-years across from base to tip, making it as wide as roughly 200 solar systems arranged side by side until they reach Neptune’s orbit. Both strong stellar winds and ultraviolet light from the massive newborn stars in the star cluster above are responsible for the erosion that occurs within these spires. It’s all part of the process; new stars are created inside the spires as the gas is compressed and eroded by the radiation from young stars.
Despite being a self-sufficient nursery, Pismis 24’s stars—which are among the galaxy’s most massive known stars—are anything but typical. Pismis 24-1, the cluster’s brightest star, was formerly believed to be a single star with a mass of 200–300 suns. That is nearly twice as much as the maximum mass that stars are thought to have.
The Hubble Space Telescope discovered in 2006, however, that Pismis 24-1 is actually at least two distinct stars orbiting one another. Both stars are still among the most massive and brightest in the Milky Way, with respective masses of 74 and 66 solar masses. JWST’s Near Infrared Camera captured the dusty dreamscape in infrared due to their strong UV radiation and stellar winds.
Before you can fully appreciate what you’re seeing, you must first understand the color code, which applies to all of JWST’s images. Different wavelengths of light are given different color filters by astronomers: white is starlight scattered by dust, deep red is cooler and denser hydrogen, orange is dust, and cyan is hot, ionized hydrogen gas. Even JWST’s infrared sensors are unable to detect the gas and dust in the darker, blacker areas.
