The James Webb Space Telescope (Webb) uses infrared light to reveal some young stars and activity hidden by dust in visible-light images. Its NIRCam instrument tends to make stars and embedded sources stand out, while MIRI shows more of the infrared glow from dust and cooler surrounding material. Comparing the views helps astronomers study both a young star and the cloud around it—but even Webb cannot see through every dense region.
Why infrared helps reveal young stars
Dust grains absorb and scatter light. In a star-forming cloud, that can dim or hide a young star’s visible glow. Some infrared wavelengths are less obstructed by dusty material than visible light, so Webb can detect sources and structures that visible-light observations may miss. NASA’s star lifecycle overview explains how intervening material can also obstruct views of regions beyond a dusty cloud.
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This is a matter of seeing deeper through some dust, not making the cloud transparent. The densest areas can remain dark even in Webb images, and that darkness may indicate obscuring material rather than empty space.
What NIRCam and MIRI reveal
A young star, its surroundings and the dust itself do not all appear the same way at different infrared wavelengths. Webb’s NIRCam observes in near-infrared light, where stars and embedded sources often stand out. Its MIRI instrument observes in mid-infrared light, making infrared-emitting dust and cooler surrounding material more conspicuous.
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| Webb view | What tends to stand out | What astronomers can study |
|---|---|---|
| NIRCam, near infrared | Stars and embedded sources | Where young stars are forming, including sources that are hard to see in visible light |
| MIRI, mid infrared | Dust’s infrared emission and cooler surrounding material | The structure and emission of the material around young stars |
NASA’s Pillars of Creation comparison illustrates the difference: stars are prominent in the NIRCam view, while MIRI brings the dust into focus. The combined image compares separately acquired observations. Its assigned colors help distinguish wavelengths and features; they are not necessarily the colors a human eye would see.
What Webb shows around a forming star
L1527: a protostar, disk and outflows
In NASA’s 2024 view of L1527, a protostar about 100,000 years old is forming inside a molecular cloud. A thin accretion disk appears edge-on, and outflows extend along the protostar’s rotation axis. NIRCam and MIRI reveal different features of the surrounding cloud and outflows, showing why the task is more than taking a clearer picture of the star: astronomers can also map the material and activity around it.
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Cosmic Cliffs: jets hidden by dust
Webb observations of the Cosmic Cliffs in NGC 3324 revealed dozens of young-star jets and outflows that had been hidden by dust. NASA says the observations help researchers examine how radiation from nearby massive stars may affect star and planet formation. Study lead Megan Reiter, an astronomer at Rice University, described the view as “a snapshot in time to see just how much star formation is going on” in a region not previously visible in this way, in NASA’s 2022 report.
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In a NIRCam image of the Tarantula Nebula, NASA described tens of thousands of young stars previously shrouded by dust. This image description offers another example of how near-infrared observations can bring embedded stars into view.
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What Webb cannot see through
- Dense dust can still block infrared light. Webb does not provide all-access vision through every cloud.
- Dust is both an obstacle and a signal. Heated dust emits infrared light that MIRI can reveal, so an observation can map material rather than show a star beyond it.
- An image is not a direct view of a protostar’s interior. Webb reveals light and structure from sources and their surroundings; it does not make the hidden interior directly visible.
- Processed colors are explanatory. In multiwavelength composites, colors are assigned to help distinguish observations, rather than representing literal visible color.
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