The Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, a small star forming region, is located 390 light years away. The closest star forming region to Earth. A chaotic scene resembling explosions frozen in time, this new image from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope displays a field of about 50 young stars, many of them similar in mass to our sun. 

A region that would look black in visible light is revealed in the infrared with Webb sensitive instruments. The detail in Webb's portrait of starbirth is unprecedented. The scene is dominated by a giant cavity that has been carved by a single star. That star, S1, is more massive than our sun and emits ultraviolet photons that have carved out a bubble. 

The yellow orange color comes from tiny sooty grains that astronomers call polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Streamers of gas and dust form structures and textures unlike anything we have seen before. The striking large red vertical band is a protostellar outflow, twin powerful Jets of material that occurred during the early stages of star formation. 

The projecting cone is the result of material that's been ejected through the jet. The entire structure glows red due to molecular hydrogen being energized as material from the jets collides with interstellar gas. 

Like most young stars young solar systems also form in multiples. And we can see several brand new solar systems making their way into the universe via the very same processes that shaped our own cosmic home. Planet forming disks block the star's light casting telltale shadows across space.