NASA's Webb telescope catches fiery hourglass as new star forms

NASA's Space Launch System rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft lifts off on the Artemis I flight test at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the United States, Nov. 16, 2022. (Keegan Barber/NASA/Handout via Xinhua)

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has revealed the once-hidden features of the protostar within the dark cloud L1527, providing insight into the beginnings of a new star.

These blazing clouds within the Taurus star-forming region are only visible in infrared light, making it an ideal target for Webb's Near-Infrared Camera, said NASA on Wednesday.

Webb also reveals filaments of molecular hydrogen that have been shocked as the protostar ejects material away from it.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world's premier space science observatory.

Webb will solve mysteries in the solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of the universe and human place in it, according to NASA.

Webb is an international program led by NASA with European Space Agency and Canadian Space Agency.