Webb’s latest Picture of the Month spotlights the Treasure Chest, a cometary globule in the Carina Nebula whose dusty interior hides a compact cluster of about 70 young stars.
NIRCam’s near-infrared view pierced the cloud to show the cluster’s internal glow, including a rare O-type star about 19 times the Sun’s mass; many of the stars also appear to retain circumstellar discs.
Researchers estimate the cluster is around 1.3 million years old, though earlier work suggested it could be as young as 100,000 years, indicating it remains deeply embedded in its birth cloud.
Just 39 light-years away on the sky, Eta Carinae and the nearby Trumpler 16 cluster help sculpt the globule with intense radiation and stellar winds.
The image feeds a Webb observing program in Carina, the nearest high-mass star-forming region, aimed at tracing how young stars gather gas and drive outflows that reshape their surroundings.