Despite issues with other NASA projects, like the twice delayed Artemis 1 launch to the moon, the James Webb Space Telescope continues to impress with its breathtaking finds. The latest discovery from the telescope is quite fitting, as Webb has captured a giant space tarantula.
The Tarantula Nebula, or the 30 Doradus, is the "largest and brightest star-forming region in the Local Group, the galaxies nearest our Milky Way," NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory shared.
The nebula is located 161,000 light-years away from Earth in the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy. It earned the nickname the "Tarantula Nebula" due to its resemblance to a burrowing tarantula's home, NASA shared.
The nebula isn't just pretty to look at either, as NASA shared that it is home to some of the hottest and most prominent stars astronomers have discovered.
Like many other regions of space that Webb has re-explored, the telescope's Near-Infrared Camera has allowed astronomers to see the area "in a new light."
The space agency shared that researchers have discovered new parts of the region in space, "including tens of thousands of never-before-seen young stars that were previously shrouded in cosmic dust."
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The nebula partly gets its shape from forming protostars that emerge from cosmic dust. In fact, the telescope captured a young star escaping the cosmic dust and has now changed what astronomers previously believed about it.
"Astronomers previously thought this star might be a bit older and already in the process of clearing out a bubble around itself," NASA said. "However, NIRSpec showed that the star was only just beginning to emerge from its pillar and still maintained an insulating cloud of dust around itself."
The emergence was captured through the telescope's Near-Infrared Spectrograph, which allows researchers to see "high-resolution spectra at infrared wavelengths."
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Without it, NASA said that "this episode of star formation in action could not have been revealed."
Astronomers have studied the Tarantula Nebula for some time as it offers a look into how stars are formed. Now, thanks to Webb, NASA said it has been able to view a "previously unseen cosmic environment."
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