A Beacon in the Clouds

Day 19 of the 2024 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: a beacon in the clouds. This image from the James Webb Space Telescope features a bright H II region in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. This nebula, known as N79, is a region of interstellar atomic hydrogen that is ionized, seen here by Webb’s Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI). N79 is a massive star-forming complex spanning roughly 1,630 light-years across. This particular image focuses on one of the three giant molecular cloud complexes, dubbed N79 South.

See the full advent calendar here, where a new image will be revealed each day until December 25.