NASA celebrated the third anniversary of the James Webb Space Telescope’s scientific operations by releasing a high-resolution infrared image of the Cat’s Paw Nebula, an active star-forming region about 4,000 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius. Captured with Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera, the picture penetrates dense dust to expose clusters of newborn, massive stars embedded in the nebula’s so-called “toe beans,” along with previously unseen filaments of gas and small, fiery red clumps where star formation is under way. The new view builds on earlier visible-light observations by the Hubble Space Telescope, underscoring Webb’s ability to complement existing datasets by mapping the same structures in longer wavelengths. NASA says the findings give astronomers a detailed laboratory for studying how stellar winds and radiation from young, heavy stars sculpt their environment in the earliest stages of development. “Three years into its mission, Webb continues to reveal previously hidden aspects of the universe, from the star-formation process to some of the earliest galaxies,” said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, acting director of NASA’s Astrophysics Division, in a statement accompanying the release. In a separate anniversary comparison, NASA published side-by-side Hubble and Webb images of the open star clusters NGC 460 and NGC 456 in the Small Magellanic Cloud, illustrating how the two observatories’ complementary capabilities allow researchers to trace both visible-light structures and the infrared glow of dust. Together, the releases highlight Webb’s growing role in refining our understanding of how stars and galaxies evolve.