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Sagittarius C (NIRCam Image)

a funnel-shaped region of space appears darker than its surroundings with fewer stars. It is wider at the top edge of the image, narrowing towards the bottom. Toward the narrow end of this dark region a small clump of red and white appears to shoot out streamers upward and left. A large, bright cyan-colored area surrounds the lower portion of the funnel-shaped dark area, forming a rough U shape. The cyan-colored area has needle-like, linear structures and becomes more diffuse in the center of the image. The right side of the image is dominated by clouds of orange and red, with a purple haze.

The full view of the James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument reveals a 50 light-years-wide portion of the Milky Way’s dense center. An estimated 500,000 stars shine in this image of the Sagittarius C (Sgr C) region, along with some as-yet unidentified features. 

A vast region of ionized hydrogen, shown in cyan, wraps around an infrared-dark cloud, which is so dense that it blocks the light from distant stars behind it. Intriguing needle-like structures in the ionized hydrogen emission lack any uniform orientation. Researchers note the surprising extent of the ionized region, covering about 25 light-years. 

Click to view a labeled version of the image.

A cluster of protostars – stars that are still forming and gaining mass – are producing outflows that glow like a bonfire at the base of the large infrared-dark cloud, indicating that they are emerging from the cloud’s protective cocoon and will soon join the ranks of the more mature stars around them. Smaller infrared-dark clouds dot the scene, appearing like holes in the starfield. 

Researchers say they have only begun to dig into the wealth of unprecedented high-resolution data that Webb has provided on this region, and many features bear detailed study. This includes the rose-colored clouds on the right side of the image, which have never been seen in such detail. 

About the Object

  • R.A. Position
    R.A. PositionRight ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position.
    17:44:40.30
  • Dec. Position
    Dec. PositionDeclination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position.
    -29:28:14.93
  • Constellation
    ConstellationOne of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears.
    Sagittarius
  • Distance
    DistanceThe physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs.
    26,000 lightyears
  • Dimensions
    DimensionsThe physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky.
    This image is about 5.8 arcminutes across (44 lightyears)

About the Data

  • Data Description
    Data DescriptionProposal: A description of the observations, their scientific justification, and the links to the data available in the science archive.
    Science Team: The astronomers who planned the observations and analyzed the data. "PI" refers to the Principal Investigator.

    This image was created with Webb data from proposal: 4147 (S. Crowe). Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

  • Instrument
    InstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.
    NIRCam
  • Exposure Dates
    Exposure DatesThe date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time.
    22 Sept 2023
  • Filters
    FiltersThe camera filters that were used in the science observations.
    F162M, F360M, F405N, F470N
  • Object Name
    Object NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.
    Sagittarius C
  • Release Date
    November 20, 2023
  • Science Release
    NASA’s Webb Reveals New Features in Heart of Milky Way
    Read the release
  • Credit
    Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Samuel Crowe (UVA)

Downloads

  • Full Res (For Print), 5733 × 2169
    tif (26.75 MB)
  • Full Res (For Display), 5733 × 2169
    png (20.84 MB)
  • 2000 × 757
    png (3.24 MB)
a funnel-shaped region of space appears darker than its surroundings with fewer stars. It is wider at the top edge of the image, narrowing towards the bottom. Toward the narrow end of this dark region a small clump of red and white appears to shoot out streamers upward and left. A large, bright cyan-colored area surrounds the lower portion of the funnel-shaped dark area, forming a rough U shape. The cyan-colored area has needle-like, linear structures and becomes more diffuse in the center of the image. The right side of the image is dominated by clouds of orange and red, with a purple haze.
Color Info
Color InfoA brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented.

These images are a composite of separate exposures acquired by the James Webb Space Telescope using the NIRCam instrument. Several filters were used to sample specific wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are:  Blue: F162M, Cyan: F405N, Orange: F360M, Red: F470N

Compass and Scale
Compass and ScaleAn astronomical image with a scale that shows how large an object is on the sky, a compass that shows how the object is oriented on the sky, and the filters with which the image was made.

Related Images & Videos

A crowded region of space, full of stars and colorful clouds, more than twice as wide as it is tall, with features outlined in the image in different colors. A key on the right indicates what each outline is highlighting. From the top of the key down: an orange circle next to text, protostar cluster. An irregular green dashed-line shape with text, infrared-dark cloud. A straight red dashed-line with text, needle structures. An irregular yellow dotted-line shape with text, ionized hydrogen. See full image extended description for more details.

Sagittarius C (Annotated NIRCam Image)

Approximate outlines help to define the features in the Sagittarius C (Sgr C) region. Astronomers are studying data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to understand the relationship between these features, as well as other influences in the chaotic galaxy center. Read the...

An image titled James Webb Space Telescope, Sagittarius C. An image of space, crowded with stars and colorful clouds of gas. At the bottom left are compass arrows indicating the orientation of the image on the sky. The north arrow points in the 3 o’clock direction. The east arrow points toward 12 o’clock. Below the image is a color key showing which filters were used to create the image and which visible-light color is assigned to each infrared-light filter. From left to right, Webb NIRCam filters are F162M (blue), F405N (cyan), F360M (orange), and F470N (red). A scale bar at the lower right of the image is about one-ninth the total width of the image, and text below it reads, six light-years.

Sagittarius C (NIRCam Compass Image)

This image of Sagittarius C (Sgr), 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...

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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

Image Credit

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Samuel Crowe (UVA)

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