161,000 light-years away: 'James Webb' reveals thousands of stars in the process of birth

The James Webb Space Telescope has revealed a new image showing thousands of stars at various stages of formation within the N159 region, located about 161,000 light-years from Earth, which is one of the youngest star-forming regions in the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy.

The James Webb Space Telescope has revealed a new image showing thousands of stars at various stages of formation within a cosmic region located about 161,000 light-years from Earth, which is one of the youngest star-forming regions in the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy, with an age of less than 3 million years. The European Space Agency released the image on October 22, 2026, as part of the telescope's monthly image series, explaining that it depicts a region known as N159, within the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy orbiting within the gravitational influence of our Milky Way. The image reveals detailed features of dense clouds of gas and dust, interspersed with newly formed stars and bright areas, allowing scientists to trace the different stages of star formation within a single cosmic environment. The area covered by the image spans about 230 light-years, showing dense orange clouds surrounding bright blue bubbles, along with dark red filaments and clusters of bright stars. According to the agency, the N159 region contains thousands of stars in their early stages and serves as a natural laboratory for studying the physical processes that lead to star birth and evolution. The Large Magellanic Cloud, despite its name, is not a gas cloud but an irregular dwarf galaxy, containing billions of stars, with a diameter of about 14,000 light-years, and is one of the closest galaxies to the Milky Way, visible to the naked eye from the southern hemisphere.