Rho Ophiuchi Video Tour | James Webb Space Telescope

Rho Ophiuchi Video Tour | James Webb Space Telescope

This video tours a portion of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, the closest star-forming region to Earth at a distance of 390 light-years. The image was taken to celebrate the first anniversary of the start of science operations for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.

Jets bursting from young stars crisscross the image, impacting the surrounding interstellar gas and lighting up molecular hydrogen, shown in red. Some stars display the telltale shadow of a circumstellar disk, the makings of future planetary systems. Once our entire solar system, encompassing the entire history of life as we know it, would have appeared something like this if seen from a distance.

At bottom, a glowing cave of dust dominates the image. It was carved out by the star S1, at the center of the cavity—the only star in the image that is significantly more massive than our Sun.

Webb is an international partnership between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

Credit:  NASA, ESA, CSA, Greg Bacon (STScI)

Duration: 1 minute, 40 seconds

Release Date: July 12, 2023

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