A near-infrared colour composite image of the protostellar outflow system HH288, also known as The Dragon Jet, made using the NIRCam instrument on NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. The composite comprises five individual mosaics made in the F150W, F200W, F356W, F444W, and F470N filters, spanning the wavelength range from 1.3 to 5 microns. Bluer colours are shorter wavelengths; redder are longer wavelengths. The image is rotated by approximately 50º clockwise from North up, East left, and covers 378 x 259 arcseconds. HH288 lies in galactic plane in the constellation of Cassiopeia at a distance of roughly 2 kiloparsecs or 6500 light years from Earth. The nickname comes from its hopefully-obvious resemblance to a Chinese dragon, or loong / 龍 / 龙 / 🐉. The main horizontal flow comprising "the dragon", with its head and flames to the left and tail to the right, spans roughly 3 parsecs or 9.8 light years. The red, orange, and yellow emission is mostly due to emission lines of shock-heated molecular hydrogen, although there is some additional emission from carbon monoxide, and the more diffuse yellow-orange glow around the waist of "the dragon" is likely reflection nebulosity from the central protostars driving the main flow. The wider blue and green glow in the image is likely a mixture of reflection nebulosity and emission from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons associated with dust in the region. The gas in the main flow is moving at speeds of 100-200 kilometres per second from its protostar, which is thought to be significantly more massive than the Sun, and likely less than a million years old. However, there are at least two other outflows seen associated with "the dragon", one linear running from lower left to upper right, and another more chaotic from lower right to upper right. Close inspection shows perhaps another two or three newly discovered small flows as well. Also obvious is the small cluster of young embedded stars towards the bottom edge of the image, which also appear to be ejecting jets of molecular hydrogen gas. For obvious reasons, I'm calling this "the dragon's egg" For more information on our original discovery of HH288 and millimetre wavelength studies of it, see this 2001 paper: scixplorer.org/abs/2001A%26A...375.1018G/abstract The original data making up this image were taken by JWST between 26 and 30 January 2025 as part of the Guaranteed Time Observation programme #4548, PI Mark McCaughrean, JWST Interdisciplinary Scientist for star formation. Image credit and copyright: Mark McCaughrean (MPIA) / NASA, ESA, CSA / CC BY-SA 4.0

A near-infrared colour composite image of the protostellar outflow system HH288, also known as The Dragon Jet, made using the NIRCam instrument on NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. The composite comprises five individual mosaics made in the F150W, F200W, F356W, F444W, and F470N filters, spanning the wavelength range from 1.3 to 5 microns. Bluer colours are shorter wavelengths; redder are longer wavelengths. The image is rotated by approximately 50º clockwise from North up, East left, and covers 378 x 259 arcseconds. HH288 lies in galactic plane in the constellation of Cassiopeia at a distance of roughly 2 kiloparsecs or 6500 light years from Earth. The nickname comes from its hopefully-obvious resemblance to a Chinese dragon, or loong / 龍 / 龙 / 🐉. The main horizontal flow comprising "the dragon", with its head and flames to the left and tail to the right, spans roughly 3 parsecs or 9.8 light years. The red, orange, and yellow emission is mostly due to emission lines of shock-heated molecular hydrogen, although there is some additional emission from carbon monoxide, and the more diffuse yellow-orange glow around the waist of "the dragon" is likely reflection nebulosity from the central protostars driving the main flow. The wider blue and green glow in the image is likely a mixture of reflection nebulosity and emission from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons associated with dust in the region. The gas in the main flow is moving at speeds of 100-200 kilometres per second from its protostar, which is thought to be significantly more massive than the Sun, and likely less than a million years old. However, there are at least two other outflows seen associated with "the dragon", one linear running from lower left to upper right, and another more chaotic from lower right to upper right. Close inspection shows perhaps another two or three newly discovered small flows as well. Also obvious is the small cluster of young embedded stars towards the bottom edge of the image, which also appear to be ejecting jets of molecular hydrogen gas. For obvious reasons, I'm calling this "the dragon's egg" For more information on our original discovery of HH288 and millimetre wavelength studies of it, see this 2001 paper: scixplorer.org/abs/2001A%26A...375.1018G/abstract The original data making up this image were taken by JWST between 26 and 30 January 2025 as part of the Guaranteed Time Observation programme #4548, PI Mark McCaughrean, JWST Interdisciplinary Scientist for star formation. Image credit and copyright: Mark McCaughrean (MPIA) / NASA, ESA, CSA / CC BY-SA 4.0

A near-infrared colour composite image of the protostellar outflow system HH288, also known as The Dragon Jet, made using the NIRCam instrument on NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. The composite comprises five individual mosaics made in the F150W, F200W, F356W, F444W, and F470N filters, spanning the wavelength range from 1.3 to 5 microns. Bluer colours are shorter wavelengths; redder are longer wavelengths. The image is rotated by approximately 50º clockwise from North up, East left, and covers 378 x 259 arcseconds. HH288 lies in galactic plane in the constellation of Cassiopeia at a distance of roughly 2 kiloparsecs or 6500 light years from Earth. The nickname comes from its hopefully-obvious resemblance to a Chinese dragon, or loong / 龍 / 龙 / 🐉. The main horizontal flow comprising "the dragon", with its head and flames to the left and tail to the right, spans roughly 3 parsecs or 9.8 light years. The red, orange, and yellow emission is mostly due to emission lines of shock-heated molecular hydrogen, although there is some additional emission from carbon monoxide, and the more diffuse yellow-orange glow around the waist of "the dragon" is likely reflection nebulosity from the central protostars driving the main flow. The wider blue and green glow in the image is likely a mixture of reflection nebulosity and emission from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons associated with dust in the region. The gas in the main flow is moving at speeds of 100-200 kilometres per second from its protostar, which is thought to be significantly more massive than the Sun, and likely less than a million years old. However, there are at least two other outflows seen associated with "the dragon", one linear running from lower left to upper right, and another more chaotic from lower right to upper right. Close inspection shows perhaps another two or three newly discovered small flows as well. Also obvious is the small cluster of young embedded stars towards the bottom edge of the image, which also appear to be ejecting jets of molecular hydrogen gas. For obvious reasons, I'm calling this "the dragon's egg" For more information on our original discovery of HH288 and millimetre wavelength studies of it, see this 2001 paper: scixplorer.org/abs/2001A%26A...375.1018G/abstract The original data making up this image were taken by JWST between 26 and 30 January 2025 as part of the Guaranteed Time Observation programme #4548, PI Mark McCaughrean, JWST Interdisciplinary Scientist for star formation. Image credit and copyright: Mark McCaughrean (MPIA) / NASA, ESA, CSA / CC BY-SA 4.0