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Flame Nebula (Hubble and Webb Comparison)

This video alternates between a Hubble Space Telescope and a James Webb Space Telescope observation of the Flame Nebula, a nearby star-forming nebula less than 1 million years old. In this comparison, three low-mass objects are highlighted. In Hubble’s observation, the low-mass objects are hidden by the region’s dense dust and gas. However, the objects are brought out in the Webb observation due to Webb's sensitivity to faint infrared light.

  • Release Date
    March 10, 2025
  • Science Release
    NASA’s Webb Peers Deeper into Mysterious Flame Nebula
    Read the release
  • Credit
    Video: NASA, ESA, CSA, Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

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Related Images & Videos

A collage of three near-infrared images showing a dusty nebula. The left two-thirds of the collage is taken up by a Hubble image of the nebula. The remaining third is taken up by two Webb images, one atop the other. The Hubble image has a pillar of dense brown dust running through the nebula at a diagonal from 5 o’clock to 11 o’clock. Wispy plumes appear to fly off from the pillar toward the sides amid blue clouds of the same material, which are whiter near the pillar. There are many white stars spread throughout. Two separate, white squares, tilted about 30 degrees, outline two areas in the pillar. The upper square has the letter “A” to the top right, while the lower square is marked by the letter “B”. These labels correspond to the two, magnified images of the nebula at right, with the top image also labeled “A” and the bottom image labeled “B”. Both images contain a mixture of reds, blues and browns, and show red, blue, and white stars.

Flame Nebula: Hubble and Webb Observations

This collage of images from the Flame Nebula shows a near-infrared light view from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope on the left, while the two insets at the right show the near-infrared view taken by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Much of the dark, dense gas and dust, as well...

A collage of four images showing a dusty nebula. Two-thirds of the collage is taken up by a single image of the nebula, while the remaining third shows three insets stacked on top of each other. In the largest image at left, there is an orange and yellow fang-like cloud of matter that cuts the image in two. The left side of the fang shows more clouds of a dark brown shade, while the right shows filaments of light brown. There are a number of bright blue and red points of light spread throughout, three of which are circled in white and labeled with a number from one to three. Circle 1 is located at about 12 o’clock in the middle of the fang-like cloud, while Circle 2 is at about 5 o’clock and Circle 3 is located at about 7 o’clock, toward the bottom left of the image. Each circle magnifies an individual object, which is shown in each of the three squares to the right of the collage, labeled 1 to 3 from top to bottom. Each image contains a single, fuzzy point of light in the middle.

Low Mass Objects within the Flame Nebula (NIRCam Image)

This near-infrared image of a portion of the Flame Nebula from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope highlights three low-mass objects, seen in the insets to the right. These objects, which are much colder than protostars, require the sensitivity of Webb’s instruments to detect...

A collage of three images showing a dusty nebula. The left two-thirds of the collage is taken up by an image of the nebula in visible light, which shows a diagonal pillar of brown dust. Two separate, white squares outline two areas of the pillar. The remaining third is taken up by the other two images, one atop the other, magnifications of the boxed regions, in near-infrared. Both images contain a mixture of reds, blues and browns. At the bottom left are compass arrows indicating the orientation of the image on the sky. The north arrow points in the 11 o’clock direction. The east arrow points toward 8 o’clock. At the lower right is a scale bar labeled 0.2 light-years. The length of the scale bar is about one-fifth the total width of the image. Below the image is a color key showing which NIRCam filters were used to create the image and which visible-light color is assigned to each filter. From left to right, NIRCam filters are: F115W and F140M are blue; F182M is green; F360M is orange; and F430M is red.

Flame Nebula: Hubble and Webb Observations (Compass Image)

Two images of the Flame Nebula (NGC 2024) at right, captured by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), with compass arrows, scale bar, and color key for reference. These images are magnified regions within the greater Flame Nebula, seen in the image at left captured by the Hubble...

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Last Updated
Aug 28, 2025
Contact
Media

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

Video Credit

NASA, ESA, CSA, Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

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