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Ghostly Cat's Head Nebula Lurks Within Sight of NASA's Hubble, Webb

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Screenshot of Ghostly Cat's Head Nebula Lurks Within Sight of NASA's Hubble, Webb

Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope observed a small, active star-forming region in the Carina Nebula, about 7,500 light-years from Earth. The area, nicknamed the Cat’s Head Nebula, appears as a ghostly shape emerging from surrounding gas and dust. Its unusual silhouette draws attention to a larger process: young stars form within dense clouds, while radiation and energy from stars shape the material around them.

In Hubble’s visible-light view, a narrow, opaque pillar of dust resembles a seated cat, with its head turned to one side and a glowing red feature like an eye. A bright rim of gas outlines the dust, while nearby blue regions show ionized gas and scattered starlight; the background shifts through yellow and orange to red. The apparent eye may mark a young star embedded inside the dust. Together, the telescope observations offer different views of this turbulent stellar nursery and its intricate structures, showing how dust, glowing gas, and newborn stars are intertwined.

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