Webb and Hubble observe stellar nurseries, galaxies, and gravitational
lensing in new images

Date:
Sun, 11 Oct 2026 21:47:31 +0000

Description:
Teams using the James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope both jointly The post Webb and Hubble observe stellar nurseries, galaxies,
and gravitational lensing in new images appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .

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Teams using the James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope both jointly operated by NASA and the European Space Agency, with the
Canadian Space Agency also participating in Webb have recently released several dazzling photos highlighting the complex and ever-changing uniqueness of our universe. Webbs images highlight a stellar nursery and galaxy cluster, while Hubbles images show an out-of-sync galaxy and a bubble-like nebula.



Webbs reveals baby stars within NGC 7129

Located 3,300 light-years from Earth is a stellar nursery named NGC 7129 a region filled with clouds of dust that help kickstart the formation of stars. While these dust clouds are largely responsible for the formation of young protostars, they also block the light from young stars at optical
wavelengths. Webbs incredible infrared sensitivity allows its suite of instruments to see directly through this dust, revealing hundreds of stars at different stages of their evolutionary lives.

The most massive star in NGC 7129 is LkH 234, located at the center of the region and marked by six bright diffraction spikes on Webbs mirror. The more massive a star, the faster it evolves, with pre-main-sequence stars like LkH 234 having already gathered all the mass they need and contracting under the force of their own gravity. LkH 234 itself is five to eight times more
massive than our Sun. Webbs image of NGC 7129. (Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/
A. Pagan (STScI))

The large gold cavity to the left of LkH 234 spans 3.5 light-years and was formed by outflows of hydrogen gas from LkH 234 shortly after it was born. Much of this gas is compressed, aiding the formation of other stars, with
some new stars already visible in the region. Two of the stars feature pink, bubble-like structures around them called bow shocks, which are created as their stellar winds push away nearby energetic gas. These stars, along with LkH 234, form a photodissociation boundary where hydrogen molecules break
down into atoms.

The red region to the right of LkH 234 comprises clumpy matter that hides and directly forms protostars the very youngest stars. Protostars are even younger than pre-main-sequence stars and form from compressed clouds of dust and gas. The red glow of this region results from protostars ejecting superheated material into outflows that interact with the dense matter that forms them. With many protostars forming in this region, several outflows often overlap and interact, giving it a complex, chaotic appearance.

Hubble observes an out-of-sync NGC 4698

Spiral galaxies are among the most uniform and consistent objects in our universe. NGC 4698, a spiral galaxy located 55 million light-years away in
the constellation Virgo, appears no different at first glance, but new Hubble observations have shown that it is all but uniform. This galaxy is one of a few known spiral galaxies whose central bulge extends perpendicular to its galactic plane. This results in the central bulges stars and gas rotating perpendicular to the rest of the disk.

Scientists believe this out-of-sync nature results from an outside force funneling gas into the galaxy. This external gas could have formed a separate disk of gas and stars at the center of the galaxy, but at an angle to the
main galactic plane of NGC 4698. Some observations also suggest that NGC 4698 may have once undergone a merger with another galaxy, with a small hydrogen arm seen extending from one side of the galaxy. Hubbles image of NGC 4698. (Credit: ESA/Hubble/NASA/D. Thilker/MAUVE-HST Team)

The white glow of the galaxys central bulge is created by thousands of small, old, and cool stars. Much larger, younger stars with a blue appearance can be seen along the outer disk. A supermassive black hole is located at the center of the galaxy, with a mass over a million times that of our Sun. Observations show that this black hole is seemingly growing, with its intense gravity continuously pulling gas, dust, and even stars into it. See Also JWST Updates Hubble Updates Space Science Section Click here to Join L2

This Hubble observation was taken as part of observing program #18103, which focuses on observing and characterizing galaxies within the Virgo Cluster, a large cluster of over a thousand galaxies in the Virgo constellation.

Webb sees bending light within MACS J0454.1-0300

When an object with an immense gravitational field is located directly in front of another bright and more distant object, the light from the distant object will be bent and magnified around the closer object a phenomenon
known as gravitational lensing. Gravitational lensing can affect more than
one object, as evidenced by Webbs recent image of the galaxy cluster MACS J0454.1-0300, which bends the light from even more distant galaxies around
it.

In Webbs image, the galaxies in MACS J0454.1-0300 are characterized by their yellow, diffuse appearance, with the light from the more distant, gravitationally lensed galaxies appearing orange.

MACS J0454.1-0300 is extremely far from Earth, with the light in Webbs image showing the cluster as it was when the universe was eight billion years old. Light travels at a finite speed, and given the immense size of the universe, it takes time for the light from extremely distant objects to reach us. Furthermore, as the universe expands, much of this light is redshifted into the infrared, obscuring these objects to optical telescopes like Hubble. Fortunately, Webbs infrared sensitivity allowed scientists to observe the spectacular cluster and its gravitational lensing. Webbs image of MACS J0454.1-0300. (Credit: ESA/Webb/NASA/CSA/L. Furtak/S. Fujimoto)

Gravitational lensings magnification allows scientists to observe and characterize objects that are too distant for telescopes to resolve under normal observing conditions. Some of the light from the distorted galaxies shows them as they were when the universe was just two billion years old, and even from just 800 million years after the Big Bang.

Even though the light is distorted, Webbs observations suggest that the galaxies are undergoing a merger, resulting in intense star formation. Some bright knots can also be seen in the distorted regions, with these knots as small as 5 light-years across and magnified by a factor of 300.

This Webb observation was taken as part of two observing programs: #5058 and #6882. Both of these observing programs aim to use the gravitational lensing effects of massive galaxy clusters to observe extremely distant objects.

Hubble captures the bubble-like LHA 120-N44

Within the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) a small galaxy that orbits the Milky Way lies LHA 120-N44, a bubble-like nebula that serves as a stellar nursery. Located 160,000 light-years away in the Dorado constellation, LHA 120-N44 features a hollow inner region surrounded by a shell of dense dust and gas. The hollow inner region is approximately 210 by 140 light-years across, with the outer shell formed by the explosions of the stars within it.

The explosions of the central stars generated supernovae that swept the clusters inner gas away from its center, forming the outer shell that surrounds the hollow inner region. However, new stars are now forming in the outer shells gas and dust, allowing LHA 120-N44 to serve as a stellar
nursery.

Scientists are particularly interested in LHA 120-N44 as its current appearance will allow them to study and time the entire stellar formation process from start to finish. Many are interested in understanding how long
it takes for nuclear fusion to begin after cold gas clouds collapse into dense, protostar-like knots. Hubbles image of LHA 120-N44 and LHA 120-N44F. (Credit: ESA/Hubble/NASA/D. Gouliermis)

Hubble was used to count and catalog the current stars within LHA 120-N44, with the observation finding approximately 500,000 stars. Nearly 30,000 of these stars are young pre-main-sequence stars that havent yet begun fusing hydrogen into helium in their cores. Massive stars within the outer gas shell energize the gas with ultraviolet radiation, giving it a bright glowing appearance. A smaller bubble-like feature in the upper-right of the image, known as LHA 120-N44F, was formed by the stellar winds of a single hot, massive star, which blew away surrounding gas and dust.

This Hubble observation was collected as part of observing program #14689, which aims to characterize stars within the LHA 120-N44 region that havent
yet started fusing hydrogen. The data collected during this observing program will allow scientists to accurately time star formation and determine the exact masses of newborn stars. Furthermore, observations will show how star formation occurs in regions that lack elements heavier than helium, like the LMC and galaxies in the early universe.

(Lead image: (Left) Webbs image of the stellar nursery NGC 7129. Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/A. Pagan (STScI). (Right) Hubbles image of the spiral galaxy NGC 4698. Credit: ESA/Hubble/NASA/D. Thilker/MAUVE-HST Team)



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Link to news story: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2026/10/jwst-hubble-images-1026/


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