The James Webb Space Telescope’s (JWST) newest Picture of the Month shows what the European Space Agency (ESA) describes as a “turbulent cauldron of star formation.” The star-forming region named LHA 120-N 159, also known as N159, is located 161,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC).

The Large Magellanic Cloud is one of the satellite galaxies orbiting the Milky Way galaxy. N159 itself is what astronomers call an “H II region,” which means it is an area of space filled to the gills with ionized hydrogen gas. Giant molecular clouds of cold hydrogen gas inevitably collapse under gravity, forming new stars.

Many of these new stars, seen in Webb’s new photo, are “extremely massive and hot,” and their powerful ultraviolet radiation continually ionizes the surrounding gas. This photo spans about 230 light-years.

‘In this Picture of the Month from the NASA/ESA James Webb Space Telescope, we visit a turbulent cauldron of star formation to see what is brewing inside dense clumps of gas.…