Peering Into the Tendrils of Star-forming Region NGC 604 (MIRI)

Located nearly 3 million light-years away in the Triangulum Galaxy is the star-forming region NGC 604. This nebula is a hotbed of star formation and home to more than 200 of the hottest, most massive kinds of stars, all in the early stages of their lives. Mid-infrared light, captured by Webb’s MIRI, reveals large clouds of cooler dust and gas glowing brightly, while fewer stars are visible in this part of the spectrum, as hot stars emit less light at these wavelengths. Some of the stars that are still visible are red supergiants: cool but very large stars, hundreds of times the diameter of our Sun. There is no region quite like this within our own Milky Way Galaxy, making NGC 604 a unique window for astronomers to study young, massive stars.