James Webb telescope finds one of our galaxy’s rarest stars inside the ‘Treasure Chest’ globule — Space photo of the week

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured the “Treasure Chest,” a cometary globule in the star-forming Carina Nebula, on Aug. 6, 2026

(Image credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, M. Reiter; Acknowledgment: M. H. Özsaraç)

Quick facts

What it is: The Treasure Chest, a cometary globule in the Carina Nebula star-forming region

Where it is: 7,500 light-years away, in the constellation Carina (the Keel)

When it was shared: Aug. 21, 2026

It looks like a gigantic treasure chest left open among the stars — but instead of gold and jewels, this strange cosmic structure contains dozens of newborn suns. This new image from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) reveals the aptly named Treasure Chest, a colorful cloud of gas and dust in the Carina Nebula, one of the Milky Way‘s richest star-forming regions.

Located about 7,500 light-years away in the Southern Hemisphere constellation Carina, the nebula stretches roughly 260 light-years across and contains some of the most massive stars in our galaxy, as well as tens of thousands of young protostars. It’s also home to the “Cosmic Cliffs,” which appeared in JWST’s first collection of science images, released in 2022.

The Treasure Chest’s unusual shape is also influenced by something outside the JWST image. About 39 light-years away, as measured across the sky, is Eta Carinae, the most luminous object in the Carina Nebula. Eta Carinae famously underwent its “Great Eruption” in the 19th century, when it briefly became one of the brightest stars in Earth’s night sky. The system contains at least two stars, including one about 100 times as massive as the sun and roughly 5 million times as luminous. Together with the nearby Trumpler 16 star cluster, its intense radiation and stellar winds are blasting away the Treasure Chest’s less-dense gas and helping to sculpt the cloud into its distinctive shape.

The Treasure Chest won’t always look like this. Radiation and winds from the young stars inside it, combined with the assault from massive stars nearby, will gradually erode the remaining gas and dust. Eventually, the cosmic chest will disappear, revealing its true jewels — the stars within it.

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James Webb Space Telescope


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