<\/div>\nThe image shows a region containing about 50 young stars, all about the same mass of our Sun, or smaller.<\/p>\n
Dark areas represent thick pockets of cosmic dust, providing the raw ingredients out of which new stars are being born.<\/p>\n
Streaks of red are bipolar jets of molecular hydrogen, which occur when a newborn star\u2019s youthful energy causes it to burst through the dusty pocket from which it was born.<\/p>\n
In the lower half of the image, the huge cavernous carving of cosmic dust has been produced by star S1, which is the only star in the image that\u2019s significantly more massive than the Sun.<\/p>\n
While in its first year the Webb Telescope has given us incredible views of the early Universe by effectively peering back in time through its distant observations, here we get a glimpse of what our own early Solar System might have been like.<\/p>\n
\u201cWebb\u2019s image of Rho Ophiuchi allows us to witness a very brief period in the stellar lifecycle with new clarity,\u201d says Klaus Pontoppidan, who served as Webb project scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, since before the telescope\u2019s launch and through the first year of operations.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur own Sun experienced a phase like this, long ago, and now we have the technology to see the beginning of another star\u2019s story.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\""James\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2023\/07\/webb-rho-ophiuchi-cloud-complex-ade78b0-e1689158296845.png?quality=90&resize=620%2C581"\" "\\"\"James\\"\/")
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