Day 2 of the 2024 Space Telescope Advent Calendar. This image shows the center of the Serpens Nebula as seen by the James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-InfraRed Camera. The Serpens Nebula, located 1,300 light-years from Earth, is home to a particularly dense cluster of newly-forming stars, some of which will eventually grow to the mass of our Sun. Webb’s image of this nebula reveals a grouping of aligned protostellar outflows (seen in the top left). These jets are identified by bright clumpy streaks that appear red, which are shock waves caused when the jet hits the surrounding gas and dust. Throughout this image filaments and wisps of different hues represent reflected starlight from still-forming protostars within the cloud.
See the full advent calendar here, as a new image will be revealed each day until December 25.