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A Tour of the Serpens Nebula

This video tours the Serpens Nebula, a star-forming region that lies 1,300 light-years away from Earth.

A new image of Serpens from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope shows an intriguing group of aligned protostellar outflows within one region of the nebula. Protostellar outflows are formed when jets of gas spewing from newborn stars collide with nearby gas and dust at high speeds.

This region is also home to several captivating features—the flapping shadow of a planet-forming disk, nicknamed the “Bat Shadow,” areas of varying density that appear as crevices, and a special binary protostar.

  • Release Date
    June 20, 2024
  • Science Release
    First-of-Its-Kind Detection Made in Striking New Webb Image
    Read the release
  • Credit
    Video: Danielle Kirshenblat (STScI); Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Science: Klaus Pontoppidan (NASA-JPL), Joel Green (STScI)

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Related Images & Videos

A rectangular image with black vertical rectangles at the bottom left and top right to indicate missing data. A young star-forming region is filled with wispy orange, red, and blue layers of gas and dust. The upper left corner of the image is filled with mostly orange dust, and within that orange dust, there are several small red plumes of gas that extend from the top left to the bottom right, at the same angle. The center of the image is filled with mostly blue gas. At the center, there is one particularly bright star, that has an hourglass shadow above and below it. To the right of that is what looks a vertical eye-shaped crevice with a bright star at the center. The gas to the right of the crevice is a darker orange. Small points of light are sprinkled across the field, brightest sources in the field have extensive eight-pointed diffraction spikes that are characteristic of the Webb Telescope.

Serpens (NIRCam Image)

In this image of the Serpens Nebula from the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers found a grouping of aligned protostellar outflows within one small region (the top left corner). In the Webb image, these jets are signified by bright...

A portion of the young star-forming region Serpens Nebula. It’s filled with wispy orange and red layers of gas and dust, and within that orange dust, there are several small red plumes of gas that extend from the top left to the bottom right, at the same angle. There are wispy blue filaments of glass in the bottom right corner of the image. Small points of light are sprinkled across the field, brightest sources in the field have extensive eight-pointed diffraction spikes that are characteristic of the Webb Telescope.

Serpens North – Aligned Outflows Crop (NIRCam Image)

This image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope shows a portion of the Serpens Nebula, where astronomers discovered a grouping of aligned protostellar outflows. These jets are signified by bright clumpy streaks that appear red, which are shock waves from the jet hitting...

A young star-forming region is filled with wispy orange, red, and blue layers of gas and dust. The upper left corner of the image is filled with mostly orange dust, and within that orange dust, there are several small red plumes of gas that extend from the top left to the bottom right, at the same angle. The center of the image is filled with mostly blue gas. At the center, there is one particularly bright star, that has an hourglass shadow above and below it. To the right of that is what looks a vertical eye-shaped crevice with a bright star at the center. The gas to the right of the crevice is a darker orange. Small points of light are sprinkled across the field, brightest sources in the field have extensive eight-pointed diffraction spikes that are characteristic of the Webb Telescope.

Serpens Center Crop (NIRCam Image)

This image shows the center of the Serpens Nebula as seen by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). The Serpens Nebula, located 1,300 light-years from Earth, is home to a particularly dense cluster of newly forming stars (~100,000 years old), some of...

An image labeled “James Webb Space Telescope, Serpens Nebula.” At the center of the image is a nebula on the black background of space. A young star-forming region is filled with wispy orange, red, and blue layers of gas and dust. The upper left corner of the image is filled with mostly orange dust, and within that orange dust, there are several small red plumes of gas that extend from the top left to the bottom right, at the same angle. The center of the image is filled with mostly blue gas. Small points of light are sprinkled across the field, brightest sources in the field have extensive eight-pointed diffraction spikes. At lower left, a white arrow pointing in the 8 o’clock direction is labeled N for north, while an arrow pointing in the 5 o‘clock direction is labeled E for east. At top right, a scale bar is labeled .25 light-years. At the bottom is a list of NIRCam filters in different colors, from left to right: F140M (blue), F210M (cyan), F360W (orange), F480M (red).

Serpens (NIRCam Compass Image)

This image of the Serpens Nebula, captured by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), shows compass arrows, scale bar, and color key for reference. The north and east compass arrows show the orientation of the image on the sky. Note that the relationship between north and east on...

Telescope image including distant stars is overlaid with a semi-transparent graphic representing the constellations Serpens, Scutum, and Sagittarius. Thin blue lines connect the actual stars of the constellations.

Zoom to the Serpens Nebula

This zoom-in video shows the relative location of the Serpens Nebula on the sky. It begins with a ground-based photo by the late astrophotographer Akira Fujii, then transitions into a plate from the Digitized Sky Survey. Next, an image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope...

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Details

Last Updated
Aug 28, 2025
Contact
Media

Laura Betz
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
laura.e.betz@nasa.gov

Video Credit

Danielle Kirshenblat (STScI)

Image Credit

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

Science Credit

Klaus Pontoppidan (NASA-JPL), Joel Green (STScI)

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