What do stellar nurseries look like up close?

The answer

Stellar nurseries are dense regions within molecular clouds where gas and dust collapse under gravity to form new stars. JWST's infrared instruments have pierced through previously opaque dust to reveal star formation in unprecedented detail. Its 2022 image of the Carina Nebula's 'Cosmic Cliffs' exposed thousands of previously hidden young stars, including protostars still accreting material. JWST's observations of the Orion Nebula - the nearest massive star-forming region at 1,344 light-years - revealed intricate protoplanetary disks, Herbig-Haro jets of material ejected at hundreds of kilometers per second, and the smallest free-floating brown dwarfs ever detected. The Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula, re-imaged by JWST in 2022, showed newly forming stars glowing red at the pillars' edges. These observations reveal that star formation is a turbulent process involving supersonic shock waves, magnetic fields, and intense ultraviolet radiation from massive stars that simultaneously sculpt and destroy the surrounding clouds.