The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope continues to reveal hidden parts of the cosmos with its advanced suite of infrared instruments. In a newly released image, Webb revealed many stars previously hidden by the dust clouds of NGC 7129 , a stellar nursery about 3,300 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cepheus. The image is already improving our understanding of how new stars are born and evolve with time.

The life cycle of stars begins in dense molecular clouds of cold dust and gas, otherwise known as nebulae. Within these cocoons, the gas and dust slowly coalesce and build up mass, eventually triggering gravitational collapse and the birth of a new star. Because of the dusty environment, young stars are often impossible to see with telescopes that cannot capture infrared light.…