James Webb telescope spots ‘failed stars’ in a breathtaking cluster near Earth — Space photo of the week
Quick facts
What is this : The Westerlund 2 star cluster
Where it is: 20,000 light years from Earth, in the constellation Carina
When it was shared: December 19, 2025
Rimmed by orange and brown clouds of gas and dust and filled with twinkling stars, this new image from the James Webb Space Telescope appears to show a portal to a cosmic wonderland.
The sparkling cluster is compact, measuring between 6 and 13 light years across, and is home to around 3,000 stars, according to a statement from the European Space Agency. Observed here at a young age of around 2 million years, this cluster contains some of the hottest, brightest and most massive stars in our galaxy.
Westerlund 2 was also captured by the Hubble Space Telescope 10 years ago to commemorate Hubble’s 25th anniversary in orbit. This image, created using visible light and near-infrared data, revealed the complex features of the cluster and the nebula surrounding it, presenting a stunning landscape of dust pillars, ridges and valleys.
Now the James Webb Space Telescope revealed an even more vibrant view of the cluster, which is full of bright young stars. This latest portrait combines infrared data from the telescope’s near-infrared camera and mid-infrared instrument.
This stunning image highlights not only massive young stars, but also the clouds and walls of dust shaped by their intense light. These sculpted regions are surrounded by wisps of orange and red gas, brilliantly illuminated by the powerful light of nearby stars.
The entire scene is interconnected by a network of blue and pink streaks that appear to be material derived from the scene. Several small stars seem to be just beginning to shine, still embedded in the thick cloud in which they formed. Larger, brighter stars, much closer to us, exhibit an eight-fold diffraction pattern created by the interaction of starlight with the telescope’s instruments.
The twinkling display of countless stars is the result of a continuous cycle of star formation in which baby stars in the stellar nursery emit intense radiation which then heats the surrounding nebula and triggers the formation of new stars.
The new observations, taken over a wide range of infrared wavelengths, include bands sensitive to methane and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emissions. While PAH emissions trace heated gases and dust, methane traces cold, low-mass objects. As a result, astronomers identified a population of brown dwarfs – or “failed stars” – including objects with a mass only about 10 times the mass of Jupiter.
Brown dwarfs are peculiar objects that straddle the boundary between stars and planets. Their masses fall between those of typical stars and those of planets, ranging from 10 to 90 times the mass of Jupiter. However, they do not have enough mass to trigger nuclear fusion in their core. New observations from the James Webb Telescope could reveal insight into the different stages of a star’s life and how planet-forming disks work around massive stars.
For more sublime space images, check out our Archives of space photo of the week.
