NASA captures first-ever rare alignment of stars in Serpens Nebula | See image

In one of its kind image, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has recently shared images of bright red clumpy streaks, aligned in the same direction in Serpens Nebula. The same direction of jets of gas emanating from newborn stars in the Nebula is makes this image different from the previous photos captured by the NASA telescope.

About the NASA image

The nebula is a young star-forming region mostly filled with wispy orange, red, and blue layers of gas and dust. The upper left corner of the image is mostly filled with orange dust, whereas viewers can spot bright red plumes of gas extending from thetop left to the bottom right. There is one brightest star at the centre. Multiple bright stars are featured in the image sprinkled across the field. Most of them have extensive eight pointed diffraction spikes.

NASA James Webb telescope

The photo was captured by NASA's James Webb Telescope, which is a premier space science observatory. The NASA telescope helps scientists unravel the mystery of nearly every phase of our Universe, ranging from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang to the formation of solar systems with the potential of supporting life. The James Webb telescope was launched on December 25, 2021. Unlike the Hubble Space Telescope, which orbits around the Earth, the James Webb Telescope orbits the Sun 1.5 million kilometers (1 million miles) away at the second Lagrange point or L2.

Serpens Nebula

Serpens Nebula is located nearly 1,300 light-years from Earth and is only 1-2 million years old. The young nebula (when compared to peers) is home to a dense cluster of newly forming stars, which are seen at the centre of the image.

Serpens Nebula is among the 48 constellations designated by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy. It remains one of the 88 modern constellations designated by the International Astronomical Union.

Nebula's region focused in the image is also home to a range of captivating features, including the flapping shadow of a planet-forming disk, which earned the moniker ‘Bat Shadow’. It is the area of varying density that appear as crevices, and a special binary protostar.