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NASA's Webb Peers Deeper into Mysterious Flame Nebula

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March 10, 2025 10:00AM (EDT)Release ID: 2025-105
A group of two near-infrared images showing a dusty nebula. The left two-thirds of the collage is taken up by a Hubble image of the nebula. The remaining third is taken up by a Webb image. The Hubble image has a pillar of dense brown dust running from the bottom of the image towards the top left. Wispy plumes appear to fly off from the pillar toward the sides amid blue clouds of the same material, which are whiter near the pillar. There are many white stars spread throughout. One square, tilted about 30 degrees, outlines an area of the pillar. The square has the letter “A” to its top right. That square corresponds to the Webb image shown to the right of the group, also labeled “A” at its top right, which is a magnified view of that area of the pillar. The Webb image has less dark brown dust, with some of it giving way to wisps of red and shows more stars, which are a mixture of red, blue, and white.

Summary

New population census answers the question: How small can you go when forming stars and brown dwarfs?

The Flame Nebula, a star-forming region in the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, has a long history of observation from telescopes such as NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. However, the smallest stars within its dark and dusty heart have largely been hidden from view. The infrared vision from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has taken a first-time look, counting the smallest and faintest objects to determine the lowest mass required to form brown dwarfs.

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Full Article

The Flame Nebula, located about 1,400 light-years away from Earth, is a hotbed of star formation less than 1 million years old. Within the Flame Nebula, there are objects so small that their cores will never be able to fuse hydrogen like full-fledged stars — brown dwarfs. Brown dwarfs, often called “failed stars,” over time become very dim and much cooler than stars. These factors make observing brown dwarfs with most telescopes difficult, if not impossible, even at cosmically short distances from the Sun. When they are very young, however, they are still relatively warmer ...

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News releases highlighting the discoveries of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope are produced for NASA by the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, under NASA Contract NAS5-03127. News release content is developed by the News Team in STScI’s Office of Public Outreach.

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