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Exploring the Cosmic Cliffs in 3D

This visualization presents a flight through the ethereal landscape of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s famous image nicknamed “Cosmic Cliffs.” These cliffs are a spectacular ridge of dust clouds, sparkling with a myriad of stars, along the edge of the nebula Gum 31. In a 3D exploration, the sequence examines features like dust pillars, stellar jets, and misty streams of ionized gas within this amazing vista.

This video is a product of the AstroViz Project of NASA’s Universe of Learning. A longer, narrated companion piece, “Star Formation from the Carina Nebula to the Cosmic Cliffs,” explores the interconnected nature of star clusters, gas, and dust across the larger setting of the Carina Nebula Complex using multiwavelength imagery. An additional visualization, “Flight to the Carina Nebula Complex," examines the location of this region both on the 2D night sky and within the 3D stars of interstellar space.

Running time: 1 minutes 44 seconds

  • Release Date
    May 7, 2025
  • Science Release
    New Visualization From NASA’s Webb Telescope Explores Cosmic Cliffs
    Read the release
  • Credit
    Producer: NASA's Universe of Learning, Gregory Bacon (STScI), Frank Summers (STScI); Visualization: Gregory Bacon (STScI), Ralf Crawford (STScI), Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Leah Hustak (STScI), Danielle Kirshenblat (STScI), Christian Nieves (STScI), Joseph Olmsted (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI), Frank Summers (STScI)

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Related Images & Videos

Four images from the Carina Nebula Complex are spliced vertically at an angle. From left to right: Hubble’s view in brown, gray, and light blue tones with a brilliant white star cluster at center; a bright purple and pink observation by Chandra; a bright pink wash with tiny blue orbs imaged by Spitzer; and a Webb view showing bright blue at top with brown clouds at bottom, overlaid with stars.

Star Formation from the Carina Nebula to the Cosmic Cliffs

This scientific visualization traverses the vast star-forming region of the Carina Nebula Complex using multiwavelength data from NASA space telescopes. The narrated journey explores clusters of massive young stars, the mottled structure of dust clouds, and high-energy X-ray...

At the center is a loose splotch of red, the Carina Nebula, set against the black background of space. Distant stars and galaxies are speckled across the scene. The very center of the Carina Nebula is brightest, almost white, with larger stars represented as dots. The gas and dust that make up the nebula take the loose form of flower petals, like an iris. The top “petal” appears in the rough shape of a lowercase V and becomes more diffuse and darker red the farther away the material is from the core. Off to its right is a small, loose red circle with several bright white stars within it. The lower petal of the nebula is also deep red, appearing more like a triangle with one peak centered at the bottom. That edge peters out into deeper red and becomes more translucent the lower it goes. Below that, a short horizontal line of deep semi-transparent red material appears. There is a prominent orange orb center-left at the top, and a blue one toward the bottom a little farther left.

Flight to the Carina Nebula Complex

This visualization travels across interstellar space to the vast star-forming region of the Carina Nebula Complex. Starting with the 2D sky as seen from Earth, the sequence traces out the nearby constellations and identifies some prominent star clusters in the widefield view....

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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

Producer Credit

NASA’s Universe of Learning, Gregory Bacon (STScI), Frank Summers (STScI)

Visualization Credit

Gregory Bacon (STScI), Ralf Crawford (STScI), Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Leah Hustak (STScI), Danielle Kirshenblat (STScI), Christian Nieves (STScI), Joseph Olmsted (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI), Frank Summers (STScI)

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