Quoth the raven “Nevermore

 

  Quoth the raven “Nevermore:

Once upon a midnight dreary, the @NASAWebb telescope captured this haunting view of star-forming region NGC 346 in mid-infrared light. The creepy blue tendrils that make up this “raven” represent dusty silicates and sooty chemical molecules, while the red glow represents warm dust heated by the brightest and most massive stars at the heart of the region. This area is also abundant with baby stars still embedded in their dusty cocoons.⁣

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NGC 346 is part of the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. It has a composition much closer to that of galaxies from the early universe and possesses fewer heavy elements. Accordingly, scientists did not expect much cosmic dust, which is formed by heavy elements. However, both Webb’s new mid-infrared look at NGC 346 and its past near-infrared view (released Jan. 2023) show plenty of dust! Learn more at @NASAWebb's link in bio.⁣

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Image descriptions:⁣

1. The lower half of the image contains arcs of bluish material that form a boat-like shape. One end of these arcs points to the top right, while the other end points toward the bottom left. Another plume of blue filaments expands from the center to the top left, resembling the mast of a sailboat. Within and extending beyond the boat shape are translucent curtains of pink, which appear atop the boat shape as and cover most of the image. Stars are scarce. A couple dozen bright pink patches with six short diffraction spikes are scattered within the blue filaments. Many faint blue dots, or stars, also speckle the background, which is black or dark gray.⁣

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2. The same image, but with an overlay of a bird shape on top of the blue filaments. The arcs of blue material in the lower half form the bird’s torso, as well as its head and beak in the bottom left corner. The arc that ends in the top right forms what could be the tail or a wing of the bird. The plume that expands from center to top left also resembles a wing.⁣

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Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Nolan Habel (NASA-JPL). Image Processing: Patrick Kavanagh (Maynooth University)⁣

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                          10 October 2023