NASA's James Webb reveals how a young star carved a 3.5-light-year cavity in the NGC 7129 nebula

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope revealed protostars and young stars at different stages of development in NGC 7129, a stellar nursery about 3,300 light-years away in the constellation Cepheus. The image, released on October 6, 2026, was captured with Webb’s Near-InfraRed Camera, whose infrared view pierces the dust that hides young stars from many telescopes. The central star, LkH-alpha 234, weighs about 5 to 8 times the mass of the Sun and carved a golden cavity about 3.5 light-years wide with outflows from an earlier stage of its life, while a clumpy red region to its right hides even younger protostars ejecting outflows of superheated gas. Astronomers will use the data to study how these stars and protostars influence the surrounding gas and dust. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, A. Pagan (STScI), N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb)