File:"Cosmic Cliffs" in the Carina Nebula (NIRCam and MIRI Composite Compass Image) (2022-031-01G781KB7TTZM1YTP855D46C1S).png

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Description	English: Composite image of the Carina Nebula (NGC 3324) captured by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), with compass arrows, scale bar, and color key for reference.
Date	12 July 2022, 15:22:00 (upload date)
Source	"Cosmic Cliffs" in the Carina Nebula (NIRCam and MIRI Composite Compass Image)
Author	IMAGE: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

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This file is in the public domain because it was created by NASA, ESA and CSA. NASA Webb material is copyright-free and may be freely used as in the public domain without fee, on the condition that only NASA, STScI, and/or ESA/CSA is credited as the source of the material. This license does not apply if source material from other organizations is in use.
The material was created for NASA by Space Telescope Science Institute under Contract NAS5-03127. Copyright statement at webbtelescope.org. For material created by the European Space Agency on the esawebb.org site, use the {{ESA-Webb}} tag.

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Author	Space Telescope Science Institute Office of Public Outreach
Image title	Astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope combined the capabilities of the telescope’s two cameras to create a never-before-seen view of a star-forming region in the Carina Nebula. Captured in infrared light by the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), this combined image revealspreviously invisible areas of star birth.What looks much like craggy mountains on a moonlit evening is actually the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region known as NGC 3324. Called the Cosmic Cliffs, this rim of a gigantic, gaseous cavity is roughly 7,600 light-years away.The cavernous area has been carved from the nebula by the intense ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds from extremely massive, hot, young stars located in the center of the bubble, above the area shown in this image. The high-energy radiation from these stars is sculpting the nebula’s wall by slowly eroding it away.NIRCam– with its crisp resolution and unparalleled sensitivity – unveils hundreds of previously hidden stars, and even numerous background galaxies. In MIRI’s view, young stars and their dusty, planet-forming disks shine brightly in the mid-infrared, appearing pink and red. MIRI reveals structures that are embedded in the dust and uncovers the stellar sources of massive jets and outflows. With MIRI, the organic, soot-like material on the surface of the ridges glows, giving the appearance of jagged rocks.Several prominent features in this image are described below.•The faint“steam” that appears to rise from the celestial “mountains” is actually hot, ionized gas and hot dust streaming away from the nebula due to intense, ultraviolet radiation.•Peaks and pillars rise above the glowing wall of gas, resisting the blistering ultraviolet radiation from the young stars.•Bubbles and cavities are being blown by the intense radiation and stellar winds of newborn stars.•Protostellar jets and outflows, which appear in gold, shoot from dust-enshrouded, nascent stars. MIRI uncovers the young, stellar sources producing these features. For example, a feature at left that looks like a comet with NIRCam is revealed with MIRI to be one cone of an outflow from a dust-enshrouded, newborn star.•A“blow-out” erupts at the top-center of the ridge, spewing material into the interstellar medium. MIRI sees through the dust to unveil the star responsible for this phenomenon.•An unusual“arch,” looking like a bent-over cylinder, appears in all wavelengths shown here.This period of very early star formation is difficult to capture because, for an individual star, it lasts only about 50,000 to 100,000 years– but Webb’s extreme sensitivity and exquisite spatial resolution have chronicled this rare event.NGC 3324 was first catalogued by James Dunlop in 1826. Visible from the Southern Hemisphere, it is located at the northwest corner of the Carina Nebula (NGC 3372), which resides in the constellation Carina. The Carina Nebula is home to the Keyhole Nebula and the active, unstable supergiant star called Eta Carinae.NIRCam was built by a team at the University of Arizona and Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Center.MIRI was contributed by ESA and NASA, with the instrument designed and built by a consortium of nationally funded European Institutes (The MIRI European Consortium) in partnership with JPL and the University of Arizona.
Copyright holder	Public
Short title	Combined NIRCam and MIRI Compass Image of the“Cosmic Cliffs” in Carina
Credit/Provider	NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team
Source	STScI
Usage terms	https://www.stsci.edu/copyright
Date and time of data generation	11:00, 12 July 2022
Color space	sRGB
Exif version	2.31
Image width	11,264 px
Image height	6,350 px
Bits per component	8 8 8
Height	6,350 px
Width	11,264 px
Pixel composition	RGB
Number of components	3
Horizontal resolution	300 dpi
Vertical resolution	300 dpi
Contact information	outreach@stsci.edu https://www.stsci.edu/ 3700 San Martin Drive Baltimore, MD, 21218 USA 410-338-4444
Keywords	NGC 3324 Carina Nebula
Date and time of digitizing	10:26, 6 December 2021
Software used	Adobe Photoshop 23.3 (Macintosh)
Date metadata was last modified	09:24, 21 July 2022
File change date and time	15:46, 10 July 2022
Unique ID of original document	xmp.did:174d5515-7b74-4d5d-9104-f7c1b1d9ee25
Copyright status	Copyright status not set

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