Carina Nebula H II Region Stellar Jets
Uncovering the full spectrum of accretion and outflow in the heart of the Carina Nebula
HE Fe II Emission (F164N − k₂ × F162M)
H2 Emission (F470N − k₁ × F444W)
F470N
Bicolor FE II + H2 Emission
This image shows a collimated atomic [Fe II] jet at ~10,000 K piercing through a surrounding molecular H₂ cocoon, with the spatial geometry of the embedded protostar's outflow made visible through an orange + cyan emission-line composite.
This is just one of Megan Reiter’s six-target survey of the Carina Nebula's Herbig-Haro objects, each with a uniform four-filter NIRCam program. The targets fall under "Molecular Cloud / SFR" with strong HII region overlap.
Cat's Paw Nebula
NIRCam Observations Of A Star Forming Nebula
F187N
F200W
F277W
F356M
F470N
F200W
F277W
F356M
F470N
Full resolution, 14k pixels
Proposal 6778 is a Director's Discretionary (DD) program led by Macarena García Marín (STScI), executed in a single visit, and it is the source dataset for the JWST third-anniversary public release of the Cat's Paw Nebula.
Proposal ID: 6778
Target: NGC-6334
Release Date: July 10, 2025
Principal Investigator: Macarena Garcia Marin
Filters: F090W, F187N, F200W, F277N, , F356M, F470N
Southern Ring Nebula
JWST Early Release Observation 7
F090W
F187N
F212N
F356W
F405N
F470N
F090W
F187N
F212N
F356W
F405N
F470N
Full resolution, 18.7k pixels
The Southern Ring Nebula observations were part of the JWSTs Early Release Observations (ERO) program—the telescope's first public science showcase and one of several flagship ERO targets.
It's a planetary nebula: the glowing, expelled envelope of a dying star. JWST's big payoff was the central star system — the infrared view showed that the star actually shaping the nebula is a faint white dwarf, nearly lost in the glare of its brighter companion, ringed by spiral structure and a dusty disk that point to a multiple-star history (De Marco et al. 2022). The six NIRCam filters separate the ionized gas, the molecular halo, the dust, and the stars, mapping how the dying star shed its mass over time.
Proposal ID: 2733
Target: NGC 3132
Release Date: July 12, 2022
Principal Investigator: Klaus Pontoppidan
Filters: F090W, F187N, F212N, F356W, F444W
Cosmic Cliffs of the Carina Nebula
JWST Early Release Observation 5
F090W
F187N
F200W
F335M
F444W
F090W
F187N
F200W
F335M
F444W
Full resolution, 13k pixels
Proposal ID: 2731
Target: NGC-3324
Release Date: July 13, 2022
Principal Investigator: Klaus Pontoppidan
Filters: F090W, F187N, F200W, F335M, F444W
Pillars of Creation
JWST Cycle 1 Outreach Campaign
F090W
F187N
F200W
F335M
F444W
F090W
F187N
F200W
F335M
F444W
Full resolution, 12.8k pixels
Proposal ID: 2739
Target: Messier 16 (M16)
Release Date: October 19, 2022
Principal Investigator: Klaus Pontoppidan
Filters: F090W, F187N, F200W, F335M, F444W
About
Unlike local astrophotography data, JWST i2d.fits data is already calibrated, dark-subtracted, flat-fielded, and mostly distortion-corrected.
My job is alignment, dynamic range control, noise management, flux normalization, color mapping, calibration, and detail enhancement.
Acknowledgements
All images are public data, processed through multiple applications, and artistically rendered by Erica Jaclyn Stein. For full resolution options, please send a request to erica@ericajaclyn.com
Some/all of the data presented here were obtained from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST). STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-26555. Support for MAST for non-HST data is provided by the NASA Office of Space Science via grant NNX13AC07G and by other grants and contracts.
James Webb Space Telescope data courtesy of NASA/JPL, ESA, CSA, STScI.