In July 2022, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured its first set of images, stunning the world with breathtaking views of the universe.
One of the most striking scenes was the “Cosmic Cliffs,” a shimmering region of star birth that looked like towering mountains and deep valleys floating in space.
Now, thanks to a new 3D visualization created by NASA’s Universe of Learning, this beautiful landscape can be explored like never before.
The project, called “Exploring the Cosmic Cliffs in 3D,” turns the iconic Webb image into a virtual experience that brings its depth and structure to life.
The Cosmic Cliffs are part of a larger region called Gum 31, which contains a young star cluster known as NGC 3324. Both Gum 31 and NGC 3324 belong to the vast Carina Nebula Complex, a hotbed of star formation located thousands of light-years from Earth.
The stars in NGC 3324 release powerful ultraviolet light and strong stellar winds that have sculpted Gum 31, carving out a massive bubble.
The edge of this bubble is what we see as the Cosmic Cliffs. While it looks like a misty mountain range, it’s actually made of hot, ionized gas and dust, pushed outward by the intense radiation from nearby stars.
The new 3D visualization also highlights other fascinating features within the Cosmic Cliffs. Bright yellow streaks and curved arcs are visible, representing powerful outflows from young stars that are still forming within the dense clouds of gas and dust.
These newborn stars shoot out jets of material as they grow, shaping their surroundings in dramatic ways. Near the top right of the visualization, viewers can spot a prominent protostellar jet, another sign of a star in its earliest stages.
Frank Summers, the principal visualization scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) and leader of the AstroViz Project, explained that the goal of this visualization is to help people understand the real structure of the universe.
By transforming a flat image into a 3D experience, it becomes easier to grasp the scale and complexity of regions like the Cosmic Cliffs.
Thanks to the Webb Telescope and innovative projects like this one, our understanding of the universe is reaching new heights—quite literally.
The Cosmic Cliffs are now more than just an image; they are a living, breathing part of the cosmos that we can almost touch and explore.
Source: NASA.
