Like kittens, actively forming stars are balls of energy. But instead of being overtaken by the zoomies, stars emit energy in the form of jets, creating fantastic, textured scenes. That’s the case for two tightly orbiting stars, known as Herbig-Haro 46/47.

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured the most detailed portrait of these stars to date. The pair of actively forming stars has sent out jets in two directions for thousands of years. Although Herbig-Haro 46/47 has been studied by many telescopes, both on the ground and in space, since the 1950s, Webb is the first to capture them in high-resolution near-infrared light. With Webb, we can now understand more of the stars’ activity – past and present – and peer through the dusty blue nebula, which appears black in visible-light images, that surrounds them. Over time, researchers will be able to glean new details about how stars form.