James Webb Orion Constellation Bar (NIRCam Image) Photo Print

This image taken by Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) shows a part of the Orion Nebula known as the Orion Bar. It is a region where energetic ultraviolet light from the Trapezium Cluster — located off the upper-left corner — interacts with dense molecular clouds. The energy of the stellar radiation is slowly eroding the Orion Bar, and this has a profound effect on the molecules and chemistry in the protoplanetary discs that have formed around newborn stars here. Within this image lies a young star system known as d203-506, which has a protoplanetary disc. Astronomers used Webb to detect a carbon molecule known as methyl cation in that disc for the first time. That molecule is important because it aids the formation of more complex carbon-based molecules.