Starbirth regions never seen before in NGC 3324

The NGC 3324 region, located about 7,600 light-years away from Earth, was first cataloged by James Dunlop in 1826. It is visible from the southern hemisphere and is located in the northwest corner of the Carina Nebula (NGC 3372 ), which resides in the constellation of Carina (also known in Spanish as the Quilla constellation). The Carina Nebula is home to the Keyhole Nebula as well as the active and unstable hypergiant star Eta Carinae.

The new NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has now revealed, in infrared light, stellar nurseries and nascent individual stars that had previously been hidden in the Carina Nebula.

Thanks to the ability of Webb’s cameras to peer through cosmic dust, the new space telescope has revealed a never-before-seen facet of how stars form.

Objects in the earliest and fastest phases of star formation are difficult to image, but Webb’s extreme sensitivity and resolution allow it to document these elusive events.

The image shows structures that resemble precipices between rugged mountains on a moonlit night. It is actually the edge of the gas giant cavity inside NGC 3324, and the tallest “peaks” in this image are about 58 light-years tall. The cavernous zone has been carved into the nebula by intense ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds from extremely large and hot young stars located in the center of the bubble.

The photo of NGC 3324 shows details never seen before. (Photo: NASA, ESA, CSA and STScI)

Scorching ultraviolet radiation from young stars is sculpting the nebula’s wall, slowly eroding it. Spectacular pillars rise above the glowing wall of gas, resisting this radiation. The “steam” that appears to rise from the celestial “mountains” is actually hot ionized gas and hot dust that are spewing out of the nebula due to relentless radiation.

Webb uncovers stellar nurseries and individual nascent stars that are completely hidden in visible-light photographs. Because of Webb’s sensitivity to infrared light, the telescope can peer through cosmic dust to see these objects. Protostellar jets, which emerge clearly in this image, shoot out from some of these young stars. The youngest sources appear as red dots in the dark, dusty region of the cloud.

Detailed analysis of these observations of NGC 3324 will provide more insight into the star formation process. In NGC 3324, star birth spreads and shifts over time, triggered by the expansion of the eroded cavity. As the bright, ionized rim moves toward the nebula, it is slowly pushed into gas and dust. If the edge encounters any unstable material, the increasing pressure will trigger the material to collapse and form new stars.

Conversely, this type of disturbance can also prevent the formation of stars, since the material that forms them is eroded away. This is a very delicate balance between causing star formation and stopping it. (Source: NASA)