Space

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 orange channel shows the continuum-subtracted H₂ molecular shocks while cyan shows continuum-subtracted [Fe II] atomic shocks.

This image reveals H II cavities carved out of dense molecular gas by the ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds of newborn massive stars, with PAH-rich photodissociation rims and shocked molecular hydrogen tracing where feedback is actively eroding the parent cloud.

The composite maps foreground and continuum starlight in blue (F090W), Paschen-α ionized hydrogen in cyan (F187N), warm dust and 3.3 μm PAH emission along the cavity rims in green and yellow (F277W, F335M), and shocked H₂ in deep red (F470N).

This image reveals the concentric shells of a young planetary nebula, where a dying white dwarf—the faint point visible along one of the diffraction spikes—has expelled layers of gas and dust into space over thousands of years; sculpted by gravitational stirring from the prominent bright star at the center in a tight binary orbit.

A processing choice: I split F405N into its own color rather than merging it with F470N as STScI did, to bring out additional structure in the ionized gas.

This image shows the eroding edge of a vast gas cavity, where ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds from massive young stars are slowly carving away the dust wall of NGC 3324, exposing newborn stars and the atomic jets they fire outward as they form.

I've departed substantially from the published palette here by reassigning several channels toward cooler, higher-contrast hues rather than the warm orange-and-blue treatment of the official release. This brings out depth in the cliff face and ridge structure that a closer wavelength-order mapping tends to flatten.

This image reveals towering columns of cold gas and dust several light-years tall, where dense knots are collapsing under their own gravity to form new stars, even as the ultraviolet radiation and winds from nearby young stars slowly erode the pillars away.

As with the Cosmic Cliffs, I've pushed this composite toward a higher-contrast, cooler-toned palette than the official orange-and-blue release, to bring out the layered structure of the dust towers rather than flatten it into a single warm gradient.