Some of the greatest, and most interesting, astronomical discoveries have come as a surprise to researchers, even when examining the most well-studied areas of the sky.

Often, it’s new technology or chance timing that result in these discoveries. In a new study of the Serpens Nebula with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, it’s both.

In one region of the nebula, Webb has resolved what previously appeared as blurry blobs into crisp protostellar outflows. And much to researchers’ surprise, those outflows are seen to be aligned, suggesting that we’ve caught this region at a unique moment in its history and providing information into the fundamentals of how stars are born.

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