Cassiopeia A (NIRCam)

The most noticeable colours in Webb’s newest image are clumps of bright orange and light pink that make up the inner shell of the supernova remnant. These tiny knots of gas, comprised of sulphur, oxygen, argon, and neon from the star itself, are only detectable by NIRCam’s exquisite resolution, and give researchers a hint at how the dying star shattered like glass when it exploded.

The outskirts of the main inner shell looks like smoke from a campfire. This marks where ejected material from the exploded star is ramming into surrounding circumstellar material. Researchers say this white colour is light from synchrotron radiation, which is generated by charged particles travelling at extremely high speeds spiralling around magnetic field lines.

There are also several light echoes visible in this image, most notably in the bottom-right corner. This is where light from the star’s long-ago explosion has reached, and is warming distant dust, which is glowing as it cools down.