NASA’s Webb captures a Cosmic Tarantula

The Tarantula Nebula is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy, 161,000 light-years away.

It is home to the world’s hottest and most massive stars.

When viewed through Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), the region resembles a burrowing tarantula’s silk-lined home.

Webb also reveals distant background galaxies as well as the nebula’s detailed structure and composition of gas and dust.

Mid-infrared observations of the Tarantula Nebula by the Hubble Space Telescope reveal a previously unknown cosmic environment.

The nebula’s chemical composition is similar to that of the massive star-forming regions observed at the universe’s “cosmic noon.”

This makes it the most detailed (i.e., closest) example of what was going on in the universe as it reached its brilliant high noon.

Astronomers will be able to compare and contrast observations of star formation with those from distant galaxies thanks to Webb.