NASA and the European Space Agency published complementary images of a star-forming structure inside the Carina Nebula on October 29, 2026, using both the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope.
The structure, informally called the Cat's Head Nebula, sits within the Carina Nebula, a diffuse cloud of gas and dust roughly 7,500 light-years from Earth.
Hubble captured the region in visible light using its WFC3 instrument, where the Cat's Head Nebula appears as a dark, elongated dust pillar with hints of young stars forming within it. Webb observed the same region in infrared light, using its NIRCam and MIRI instruments, and its imagery reveals many stars that are hidden in Hubble's visible-light view, along with other structural details invisible to Hubble.
Hubble is operated jointly by NASA and ESA. Webb is a joint project of NASA, ESA, and the Canadian Space Agency.