Webb reveals stunning panorama of star formation
One of Webb’s largest images to date showcases the hunt for the smallest brown dwarfs
This starry view of the nearby star-forming region IC 348 is one of the largest images from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope released to the public so far. Using Webb, astronomers searched IC 348 for brown dwarfs, which are less massive than the smallest stars. The researchers discovered brown dwarfs just twice the mass of Jupiter, bringing the study of these curious objects into a new mass range.
The star-forming region IC 348 is located just 1000 light-years away in the constellation Perseus. In regions like IC 348, cold clouds of molecular hydrogen gas collapse to form new stars, creating glowing, sculpted scenes like this one. The star-formation process can create impressively varied objects, from massive stars that expire after only a few million years in core-collapse supernova explosions to the smallest and most common stars, which are long lived and produce powerful stellar storms.
The smallest stars weigh in at around 8% of the Sun’s mass. Below this mass lies a strange and intriguing class of objects called brown dwarfs. Brown dwarfs form in the same way that stars do, through the collapse of molecular clouds, but unlike stars, the cores of brown dwarfs never become hot enough to fuse hydrogen into helium (though many briefly fuse deuterium, or heavy hydrogen, early in their lives).
What’s still not clear — and what researchers hoped to learn by using Webb’s sensitive instruments to probe IC 348 — is how small are the smallest objects created by the star-formation progress. In other words, how small is the smallest brown dwarf?
Researchers seeking to answer this question first used Webb to study IC 348 in 2022, when they discovered brown dwarfs with masses as low as three to four times the mass of Jupiter. Now, the same research team has used Webb to probe even deeper into this region in search of even smaller brown dwarfs.
The team used Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) in 2024 to capture the warm glow of young brown dwarfs and newborn stars that we see in this new image of IC 348. After selecting candidate brown dwarfs based on their colours and brightness, they followed up with Webb’s NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) in 2025 to conduct spectroscopic observations to study the masses of the brown dwarfs.
These deep Webb observations revealed something remarkable: brown dwarfs with masses as low as just twice the mass of Jupiter — just 0.19% of the Sun’s mass. These are the least massive brown dwarfs known, and their existence poses a challenge to models of how stars form.
In addition to the discovery of these unexpectedly lightweight brown dwarfs, the Webb observations contained even more surprises. One of the lightest newfound brown dwarfs showed signs of a disc, suggesting that planets could be forming around it despite the brown dwarf being the mass of a planet itself.
While inspecting the spectra of IC 348’s brown dwarfs, the research team also found a feature that they attributed to hydrocarbons, which are molecules made only of hydrogen and carbon atoms. This feature has only been seen in the atmospheres of the lowest-mass brown dwarfs, suggesting that these extreme objects might exist in a spectral class of their own.
The stars and brown dwarfs of IC 348 aren’t the only attractions in this photo. A brilliantly detailed collection of protostars occupies the upper-right corner of the image. Several of these protostars are accompanied by Herbig-Haro objects, which are luminous regions that form when jets from growing newborn stars crash into the gas and dust around the star.
The long, narrow object that is oriented horizontally in this corner is HH 797, which was featured previously as a Webb Picture of the Month. Upon close inspection, this source is revealed to be two protostars with nearly parallel outflows. Just to the right of HH 797 is the propeller-shaped source HH 211, which features both narrow jets and broader outflows, and was also showcased in a previous image release.
The data used to create this image come from the Webb observing programme #4866 (PIs: K. Luhman, C. Alves de Oliveira). The aims of this programme are to study the lowest-mass objects created through the star-formation process, as described here; to understand how the populations of planetary-mass objects like brown dwarfs vary between star-forming regions; and to probe the origins of the hydrocarbon feature in the lowest-mass brown dwarfs.
Star-forming region IC 348 (NIRCam image)
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope recently observed IC 348, a star-forming region just 1000 light-years away. This is one of the largest Webb images released to the public so far. This near-infrared vista of IC 348 reveals a collection of objects called brown dwarfs, which are smaller than the smallest stars.
Researchers used the unparalleled sensitivity of Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) to track down the smallest brown dwarfs in IC 348, which weigh in at just just twice the mass of Jupiter. These are the least massive brown dwarfs known, and their existence poses challenges to models of how stars form.
In addition to the brown dwarfs and young stars scattered across the swirling nebula, this image provides a unique perspective on a handful of protostars, which can be seen in the upper-right corner. These protostars are ejecting powerful jets that have crashed into the gas and dust surrounding them, creating luminous regions called Herbig-Haro objects.
[Image Description: A star-forming region. It is blanketed in thick clouds of gas and dust, millions of kilometres across, that form swirling patterns. Bright stars are scattered throughout the clouds, with the densest cluster situated in the centre of the scene. Each is crowned with six long points created by the optics of the telescope’s mirrors. In the upper right, a couple of hidden stars blast out long, glowing jets of material.]
Credit:
ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, K. Luhman, C. Alves De Oliveira, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb)
Collage of cutouts of star-forming region IC 348 (Webb NIRCam image)
This collage features a collection of cutouts from the massive star-forming region IC 348. Each of these six panels showcase features of interest that are visible throughout the field.
1: Star embedded in a nebula — This small portion of the field contains two stars deeply embedded in a cloud of gas and dust. The large star’s shorter-wavelength infrared light is absorbed by the dust, leaving it brightest at longer wavelengths, which are coloured orange; the same dust absorption creates the silhouettes in the image.
2: Central star cluster — The centre of IC 348 is dominated by wispy curtains of gas that form a large loop. Winds from the many stars sculpt the clouds of interstellar gas and dust, and the clouds reflect the light from the cluster’s stars — what is known as a reflection nebula.
3: Stars and faint outflows — Here on the outskirts of the field, two stars shine out of clouds of gas and dust. The stars appear equally bright, but the orange one is more deeply embedded. Thin red arcs and blotches near the stars are hot, glowing shockwaves created by fast-moving outbursts from the stars.
4: Herbig-Haro objects — This relatively small region near the top of the image is packed with long, glowing outflows and bold colours in the waves of gas and dust. The outflows, known as Herbig-Haro objects, are created by stellar winds or jets from protostars ploughing into the thick clouds around them. No less than three objects in this area have previously been the subjects of their own images, demonstrating how rich an area of star formation this is.
5: Gravitational lensing — This tiny object, at first glance appearing almost like a planet with a ring, is in fact two galaxies. The blue one is closer to us, and the orange galaxy is very far away behind it but lined up just right. This causes the light from the orange galaxy to be bent by the gravity of the blue galaxy, creating a magnified, warped image.
6: Spiral galaxies — Some of the more prominent galaxies that can be seen behind the clouds of gas and dust. While the IC 348 region is around 1000 light-years from Earth, these galaxies are millions of light-years away, and the even smaller galaxies that appear as coloured dots in the background are up to billions of light-years distant.
[Image description: A collage, with three large panels along the top and four smaller ones on the bottom. The middle panel on top shows star-forming region IC 348. Six boxes are drawn around features in the region, numbered 1–6. The other six panels are numbered and show these features enlarged. They include bright stars throughout the nebula, protostars shooting jets of gas, a distant spiral galaxy, and a gravitational lens.]
Credit:
ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, K. Luhman, C. Alves De Oliveira, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb)
IC 348 Crop: Star embedded in a nebula
This image showcases a portion of the larger IC 348 field to highlight two stars embedded within a cloud of gas and dust. The central star, despite being brighter and appearing larger than its companion to the lower-right, is in fact more deeply wrapped in the clouds of gas and dust. These clouds block more of the shorter-wavelength infrared light that the star emits, leaving it brightest in the longer wavelengths, which in this image are coloured orange. The smaller star is less shrouded, so the shorter and longer infrared wavelengths combine to make it appear whitish-blue. The galaxies seen in the background are thousands of times further away from Earth than these two stars.
The bright lines appearing to radiate out from these stars are a type of distortion that arises from the optical design of the telescope. Called diffraction spikes, they are created because the intense light from the unresolved target is bent (“diffracted”) very slightly at the edges of Webb’s hexagonal mirror panels and around one of the struts that hold up its secondary mirror. This distinctive six-plus-two-pointed pattern is the same for any image taken by Webb. For diffraction spikes to appear, the light source has to be very bright and very concentrated, so they’re most often seen on stars.
You can view the full image from which this crop was taken here.
[Image description: A star embedded within a cloud of gas and dust. The star is a very bright point in the centre of the image. It radiates six long and two short orange spikes of light, caused by the telescope's optics. Most of the gas behind it is blue and wispy, but below the star is a patch of bold yellow and red gas in a butterfly-shape. A few glowing shockwaves made by fast-moving gas surround the star. Small, whitish galaxies appear in the distance.]
Credit:
ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, K. Luhman, C. Alves De Oliveira, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb)
IC 348 Crop: Central star cluster
This image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope shows the central portion of the star cluster IC 348. The wispy curtains filling the image are interstellar gas and dust reflecting the light from the cluster’s stars — what is known as a reflection nebula. The material also includes carbon-containing molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs. The bright star closest to the centre of the frame is actually a pair of type B stars in a binary system, the most massive stars in the cluster. Winds from these stars may help sculpt the large loop seen on the right side of the field of view.
You can view the full image from which this crop was taken here.
[Image description: Wispy, criss-crossing filaments fill the scene, creating dense and highly textured layers of gas in colours from green to yellow to orange and pink. Above the centre, the filaments join into a large loop, while below they bend and create wave-like curves. Dozens of bright stars are layered atop the gas, a pair in the centre being particularly bright; all sport six long and two short spikes of light, created by the telescope’s optics.]
Credit:
ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, K. Luhman, C. Alves De Oliveira, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb)
IC 348 Crop: Stars and faint outflows
This image showcases a portion of the larger IC 348 field to highlight two stars among the outskirts of the nebula. These two stars appear equally-sized, because they are similarly bright, but one is orange while the other is blue. The reason for this is that the orange star is more deeply embedded in the clouds of interstellar gas and dust; these clouds block more of the shorter-wavelength infrared light that the star emits, leaving the longer wavelengths, which are coloured orange in this image. The other star is less shrouded, so the shorter and longer infrared wavelengths combine to make it appear whitish-blue. While it doesn’t look like there’s a lot of gas or dust here, the thin red arcs and faint blotches that can be seen around the stars are shockwaves made in that gas. Outbursts from the young stars crash into the interstellar gas, compressing and heating it up until it glows.
The bright lines appearing to radiate out from these stars are a type of distortion that arises from the optical design of the telescope. Called diffraction spikes, they are created because the intense light from the unresolved target is bent (“diffracted”) very slightly at the edges of Webb’s hexagonal mirror panels and around one of the struts that hold up its secondary mirror. This distinctive six-plus-two-pointed pattern is the same for any image taken by Webb. For diffraction spikes to appear, the light source has to be very bright and very concentrated, so they’re most often seen on stars.
You can view the full image from which this crop was taken here.
[Image description: Two bright stars, one golden and one more white in colour, in a mostly-dark area of space. Diffuse, dark blue gas clouds curl around the stars, with dark bands of empty space cutting through the clouds. Thin red arcs near the stars are hot shockwaves in the gas. The background is filled with many small objects in blue, green or yellow; most are distant galaxies.]
Credit:
ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, K. Luhman, C. Alves De Oliveira, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb)
IC 348 Crop: Herbig-Haro objects
This image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope shows stars and protostars in the vicinity of the star cluster IC 348. The long, narrow object that is oriented horizontally on the left side of this image is HH 797, which was featured previously as a Webb Picture of the Month. Upon close inspection, this source is revealed to be two protostars with nearly parallel outflows. To the right and oriented diagonally is the propeller-shaped source HH 211, which features both narrow jets and broader outflows, and was also showcased in a previous image release.
The glowing orange area directly above HH 797, named LLRL 54361, has been the subject of an image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope; it’s thought to host two further protostars. A number of other more- and less-embedded protostars lurk in this nebula, contributing to the edges and wave-like patterns in the clouds, as well as further spectacular glowing outflows.
The wispy curtains in the bottom left of the image are interstellar material reflecting the light from the cluster’s stars — what is known as a reflection nebula. The material also includes carbon-containing molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs.
You can view the full image from which this crop was taken here.
[Image description: A star-forming nebula that contains young stars called protostars. Two of these protostars are shooting out long jets that are colliding with the nebula, creating glowing, colourful outflows. A few other protostars create orange and red areas in the nebula. Most of the image is covered by blue gas, with brighter areas, denser clouds and dark gaps; the bottom-left corner contains greenish-yellow gas.]
Credit:
ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, K. Luhman, C. Alves De Oliveira, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb)
IC 348 Crop: Gravitational lensing
This image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope shows an example of gravitational lensing hidden in the background of the star-forming region IC 348.
The round blue dot in the centre of the image is a distant galaxy. The orange line which arcs around it on one side, and the small orange loop touching its centre, are both images of another, even more distant galaxy behind it. Because this orange galaxy lines up just right behind the blue galaxy, the blue galaxy acts like a lens: its gravity bends the path of the light emitted by the orange galaxy, creating these warped images.
You can view the full image from which this crop was taken here.
[Image description: A close-up of a galaxy among the greenish gas clouds of IC 348. The galaxy appears like a round blue dot. An orange line bends around the bottom-right of the dot, appearing to warp to avoid touching it; a second, smaller orange line forms a loop touching the core of the galaxy. These two lines are images of the same distant background galaxy, made by gravitational lensing.]
Credit:
ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, K. Luhman, C. Alves De Oliveira, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb)
IC 348 Crop: Spiral galaxies
This image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope shows a few of the spiral galaxies that can be seen behind the clouds of gas that make up the nebula around IC 348. The nebula is located around 1000 light-years from Earth: these spiral galaxies are a thousand times further away than that, being millions of light-years distant. The small, featureless dots in the background are further galaxies, and these are a thousand times further away again, at distances up to billions of light-years from Earth.
You can view the full image from which this crop was taken here.
[Image description: A dark region of space. In the centre lies a relatively purple-coloured spiral galaxy, with two thick, loosely-wound arms that each end in a long tail. Two smaller, more irregularly-shaped spiral galaxies in similar colours are visible in the corner. Dozens of distant galaxies in the background are little more than misshapen, colourful dots; there are also a few stars with bright cores.]
Credit:
ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, K. Luhman, C. Alves De Oliveira, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb)
VIDEOS
Space Sparks episode 31: A stunning panorama of star formation
This Space Sparks episode highlights one of Webb’s largest images to date that showcases the hunt for the smallest brown dwarfs.
Learn more about the new image here.
Credit:
ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, JPL-Caltech, DSS2, K. Luhman, C. Alves De Oliveira, N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb), A. Kamkar, L. Cieza, E. Slawik, N. Risinger, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb)
Music: Stellardrone - The Belt of Orion
Pan video: IC 348
This starry view of the nearby star-forming region IC 348 is one of the largest images from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope released to the public so far. Using Webb, astronomers searched IC 348 for brown dwarfs, which are less massive than the smallest stars. The researchers discovered brown dwarfs just twice the mass of Jupiter, bringing the study of these curious objects into a new mass range.
Learn more about this image here.
Credit:
ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, K. Luhman, C. Alves De Oliveira, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb), N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb)
Music: Stellardrone - Twilight
Pan video: Features of IC 348
This video showcases different features from the massive star-forming region IC 348. The cutout images shown here highlight bright stars throughout the nebula, protostars shooting jets of gas, a distant spiral galaxy, and a gravitational lens.
Credit:
ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, K. Luhman, C. Alves De Oliveira, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb), N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb)
Music: Stellardrone - Stardome
Zoom video: IC 348
This video takes the viewer on a journey through space to a starry view of the nearby star-forming region IC 348. This one of the largest images from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope released to the public so far. Using Webb, astronomers searched IC 348 for brown dwarfs, which are less massive than the smallest stars. The researchers discovered brown dwarfs just twice the mass of Jupiter, bringing the study of these curious objects into a new mass range.
Learn more about this image here.
Credit:
ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, JPL-Caltech, DSS2, K. Luhman, C. Alves De Oliveira, N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb), A. Kamkar, L. Cieza, E. Slawik, N. Risinger, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb)
Music: Tonelabs – The Red North (www.tonelabs.com)
Fuente: ESA/Hubble/Webb Information Centre
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