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NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has taken two 
new images of the star-forming region NGC 604,  

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located in the Triangulum galaxy, 2.7 
million light-years away from Earth. 

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Sheltered among these dusty envelopes 
of gas are more than 200 of the hottest,  

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most massive kinds of stars, all in the 
early stages of their lives. The largest  

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of these stars can have more than 
100 times the mass of our own Sun.

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Using Webb’s powerful Near-Infrared Camera,  

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called NIRCam, the most noticeable features 
are tendrils and clumps of bright red emission,  

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extending out from areas that look like 
clearings, or large bubbles in the nebula.

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Stellar winds from the brightest and hottest 
young stars have carved out these cavities,  

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while ultraviolet radiation ionizes the 
surrounding gas. This ionized hydrogen  

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appears as a white and blue ghostly 
glow. As you travel further from the  

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immediate clearings of dust, the deeper 
red signifies molecular hydrogen. This  

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cooler molecular gas can be the 
fuel for future generations of stars that are forming.

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Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument, called 
MIRI, lets us see a new window into the  

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diverse and dynamic activity of this 
region. In the MIRI view of NGC 604,  

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there are noticeably fewer stars. This 
is because hot stars are much fainter at  

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these wavelengths of light, while the larger 
clouds of cooler gas and dust glow brightly.

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Some of the stars seen in this image from the 
surrounding galaxy are red supergiants—stars with  

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low surface temperatures that are very large, 
hundreds of times the diameter of our Sun.

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How stars are born and how they interact with 
their environments are two big questions in  

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astronomy today that are actively being studied 
with the Webb telescope. In this new image,  

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Webb is showing us parts of the story 
of star formation that we could never  

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see before, revealing more about 
the universe and our place in it.

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"WEBB Space Telescope" ending screen.

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NASA Meatball appears onscreen