Overview

• Webb’s NIRCam instrument pierced dense dust in NGC 6334 to reveal mini “pads” containing young massive stars sculpting their surroundings.
• The observations demonstrate how energetic radiation and stellar winds carve cavities in gas and dust and eventually halt local star birth.
• Situated about 4,000 light-years away in Scorpius, the Cat’s Paw Nebula ranks among the Milky Way’s most active stellar nurseries and rewards infrared inspection.
• These images deliver resolution far beyond prior Hubble and Spitzer data, underscoring Webb’s success in uncovering previously hidden cosmic processes.
• Insights from these latest observations are shaping science goals for forthcoming flagship missions such as the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope and the Habitable Worlds Observatory.