NGC 604 is located in the star formation region and contains more than 200 B-type and O-type stars. This is a unique opportunity to study young, massive stars. The NASA James Webb Telescope captured two different images of this region. The first image was taken in near-infrared light and shows bright red emission branches and clumps extending out from large bubbles. These are cavities created by stellar winds from hot young stars.

NGC 604 is located in the star formation region and contains more than 200 B-type and O-type stars. This is a unique opportunity to study young, massive stars. The NASA James Webb Telescope captured two different images of this region. The first image was taken in near-infrared light and shows bright red emission branches and clumps extending out from large bubbles. These are cavities created by stellar winds from hot young stars.

The second image was taken in the mid-infrared and shows large clouds of cooler dust and gas glowing brightly. Because hot stars emit less light at these wavelengths, fewer stars can be seen. But some of the stars still visible are red supergiants: cool but very massive stars, hundreds of times the diameter of our Sun.

The details in the images are as follows:

At the centre of the first image is a nebula of lumpy, red, filamentary clouds against the black background of space. A large cavernous bubble and an opaque bluish glow with stellar speckles can be seen in the centre of the bubble. At the top of the nebula are several smaller cavernous bubbles. Outside the nebula, there are thousands of yellow or white stars, some of them extremely bright. There are also a few small red stars and a few disc-shaped galaxies.

In the centre of the second image is a nebula of light blue clouds against the black background of space. There is a large hollow bubble in the right centre of the blue clouds, and the lower left edge is filled with pink and white gas tones. Hundreds of faint stars can be seen around the nebula.