The bright red, lumpy lines in the upper left corner are all inclined in the same direction and at the same angle. These show aligned protostellar outflows, or jets of gas from newly forming stars. NASA James Webb was able to image this phenomenon for the first time.

"Astronomers have long assumed that as clouds collapse to form stars, these stars would tend to rotate in the same direction," said lead researcher Klaus Pontoppidan of NASAAJPL. However, this has never been observed so clearly before. These aligned, elongated structures are a historical record of the fundamental process of star formation."

Previously, these objects were seen as spots or invisible at optical wavelengths. Thanks to Webb's sensitive infrared vision, thick dust clouds were pierced and the stars and their outflows could be analysed.

This region is part of the Serpens Nebula. Located 1,300 light years from Earth, this nebula is only 1-2 million years old, which is quite young on a cosmic scale. At the centre of the image is a dense cluster of newly formed stars, about 100,000 years old.

Image description:

A young star formation region is filled with layers of orange, red and blue coloured gas and dust. The upper left corner of the image is mostly orange dust, and within this orange dust are several small clouds of red gas extending from the upper left to the lower right at the same angle. The centre of the image is mostly filled with blue gas. In the centre is a particularly bright star with an hourglass shadow above and below it. To the right of this is a vertical eye-shaped slit with a bright star in the centre. The gas to the right of the slit is darker orange. Small points of light are interspersed throughout the image, with the brightest sources in the field having the Webb Telescope's characteristic eight-pointed diffraction spikes.