Pic of the Week: Pismis 24

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The Pismis 24 star cluster as captured by the JWST. (NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI, A. Pagan (STScI))

This week’s amazingly vibrant image was captured by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). It shows a young star cluster, called Pismis 24, which is approximately 5,500 light-years away.

Here is the rest of the story from the European Space Agency (ESA):

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. 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.