NGC three four six, a star cluster that lies within a nebula,
is located 210,000 light years away.
It resides within the Small Magellanic Cloud
a dwarf galaxy close to our Milky Way.
New findings from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope reveal
the presence of a much more intricate network of gas
and dust structures than previously discovered in the area.
Within this plume of gas is cold molecular hydrogen, which provides
a perfect environment for young stars to form, some of which can be seen here.
These young stars generate energy that heats the gas
energizing and splitting the molecular hydrogen.
This effectively carves rough ridges into the gas.
This area appears to show the head
of a dragon spitting out balls of hot gas.
Its eye and the balls of gas are areas of active star formation
which will continue to change the environment around it.
These wisps are more evidence of that environmental change.
Winds from nearby stars are blowing away material that surrounds still forming
stars, leaving these small structures behind.
Here we see curly ribbons of glowing gas
that outline the cold molecular gas of the region.
These many pillars of creation show
how pervasive the stellar erosion is in the region.
Eventually, over millions of years, the mixture of energized and dense
hydrogen will give way to thousands of stars and far more of
these filamentary structures.