On July 11, 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope finished its commissioning and commenced science operations. In the three years since, the powerful infrared space telescope has delivered on its promise. It's looked back in time and surprised us with the galaxies it found. It's directly-imaged exoplanets and studied the atmospheres of others. Among this and all of its other science, it's delivered a stream of stunning images.
NASA, the ESA, and the CSA, all partners in the telescope, are celebrating the JWST's third anniversary with the release of new images of NGC 6334, the Cat's Paw Nebula.
The Cat's Paw (NGC 6334) is a massive star-forming region about 5,500 light years from the Sun that spans about 320 light-years. It's also an emission nebula, meaning its gas is heated up by nearby hot stars and is glowing with ionization. The Cat's Paw is rife with star formation, and astronomers have identified and studied star-forming regions embedded in the nebula. The nebula also contains clumps of interstellar dust as large as 3,000 solar masses.
Nebula images draw us in with their intricate natural detail. Gazing at them provokes questions about what they are and how they form. While astronomers have learned a lot about objects like the Cat's Paw Nebula, there are still many questions. The JWST was built to address outstanding questions about all kinds of things in space, including the birth of stars.
Many teams of researchers have studied the Cat's Paw Nebula in the hopes of unlocking its secrets.
A 2013 paper detected more than 700,000 stars in the Cat's Paw, including more than 2,200 young stellar objects. It found multiple sites of new star formation on filamentary structures that extend for tens of parsecs from the nebula's center. They think that NGC 6334 is undergoing a "mini-starburst". "This diversity of environments within NGC 6334 provides a unique laboratory to study massive star formation at all stages of pre-main-sequence evolution," those authors wrote, highlighting the nebula as an important scientific target.
A 2016 paper focused on a single cluster of protostars in the Cat's Paw with ALMA and the VLA. The researchers uncovered a diverse group of YSOs in different stages of formation of activity. Some of the thermal molecular lines they measured were difficult to understand, and they suggested the presence of "a rare evolutionary phase of a high-mass protostar." Yet another compelling reason to train the JWST on the nebula and explore it.
A 2025 paper probed the relationships between the magnetic fields in the Cat's Paw and its filaments. They found that for some of the filaments, the magnetic fields seem to be shepherding gas into the filament and driving star formation.
There are many gaps in our knowledge of star-formation, a multi-stage process that begins with massive, turbulent clouds dominated by molecular hydrogen, and results in balls of plasma undergoing nuclear fusion and lighting up their surroundings. Astronomers have studied the Cat's Paw with the Hubble, the Spitzer, and many other telescopes, and now it's the JWST's turn.
While much of what astronomers discuss about star formation can seem esoteric, the JWST's images of the Cat's Paw remind us that it's all about Nature, which we're all a part of. No other telescope has revealed as much detail in this stunning nebula, and the depth of detail draws us into the image.
Every time a star forms in the Cat's Paw, planets probably form with it. It's possible that somewhere in this stunning visual display, among the multitudes of stars, a rocky planet with just the right conditions for life is taking place.
Thanks to the JWST, we can gaze and wonder, and celebrate its third year.
You can download the full image here and explore it in detail.