The Orion Nebula is one of the bright nebula seeable to the naked eye and the tight star formation region to Earth . Observations withJWSThave brought off sensational pictures and unbelievable discoveries such as the bearing ofJupiter - Mass Binary Objectsthat challenge the current theories of how major planet and stars grade . But something even more mysterious lurks there .

The incredible observation of the Orion Nebula are a photomosaic of thousands of images and multiple filters . Researchers redact them together acknowledge something weird in one of the filters ( F115W ) that observed the cosmos through spark with wavelength around 1.16 micrometer . In certain observations from that filter , peculiar shadows would appear . No equivalent lineament was see with other instruments , nonplus the researchers , whose paper on the findings is yet to be peer - reviewed .

“ When I was await around , I started seeing all these dark shadow around things . And that ’s in the figures later on . And it ’s only in that filter , exclusively in that filter . Those shadows do n’t exist in any other wavelength with Hubble or with JWST,”Dr Mark McCaughrean , Senior Advisor for Science & Exploration at the European Space Agency , told IFLScience .

![Four black and white pictures show circular shadows with tendrils around stars.](https://assets.iflscience.com/assets/articleNo/70942/iImg/71063/Shadow 3.png)

“Coffee stains” dark shadows seen in the Orion Nebula.Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA / Science leads and image processing: M. McCaughrean, S. Pearson

The first thing the researchers turn over was junk . After all , infrared telescopes are particularly honorable at canvass the dusty components of nebula and galaxies . But this did not make any sense with the dark disappearing in other filters . So they look at something that could be found in abundance in a nebula but only be seeable in a narrow window in the electromagnetic spectrum . And the most likely substance was atomic number 2 .

Helium is the second most abundant element in the universe , hit up for about one - quartern of all the average matter in the universe . And in particular , this would be helium with its two electrons still around , neutral helium .

“ We think that it ’s really cold indifferent atomic number 2 absorbing the light from the background nebula . And perhaps the most noteworthy one , we actually see protostellar jets in absorption against the backcloth , ” Dr McCaughrean told IFLScience .

![four more black and white photos showing slightly darker clouds in front of the more uniform nebula in the background](https://assets.iflscience.com/assets/articleNo/70942/iImg/71064/Shadow 2.png)

More dark features including bat-like ones!Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA / Science leads and image processing: M. McCaughrean, S. Pearson

JWST has seen its bonnie share ofprotostellar jets . Images share with the public show the unbelievable interactions between these jets and other cosmic materials . The crimson interaction produce light , allow telescopes to see them . But there is more to them than what we can see in those specific case , so these observations open up up a whole new avenue to study them .

“ My friends who make in that field conceive that ’s way more exciting than the JuMBOs because if that is a inert absorber in those outflows , it will essentially allow us measure their mass flat for the first time , ” Dr McCaughrean told IFLScience .

A elaborate analytic thinking of the JWST observations of the Orion Nebula include these mysterious morose absorbers can be readhere . It has been submit to the daybook Astronomy & Astrophysics .

![Four more black and white phots. In these case the darker features are thing and elongated stretching away from stars](https://assets.iflscience.com/assets/articleNo/70942/iImg/71065/Shadow 1.png)

The dark outflows that might surround protostellar jets like sheats.Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA / Science leads and image processing: M. McCaughrean, S. Pearson