Nearly 30 years ago, the Pillars of Creation shocked the astronomy world when they were captured by NASA’s famed Hubble Space Telescope.
Now a new generation can enjoy a new, haunting spectacle after the US space agency’s $10 billion (£7.4 billion) James Webb Hyperspace Telescope imaged fingerlike tendrils of gas and dust.
Resembling a ghostly hand, the Pillars of Creation are part of the Eagle Nebula – which is 6,500 light years from Earth – and are known for being the source of star formation.
This week NASA and the European Space Agency revealed another look at the blob from Webb’s piercing eye.
Beautiful: Nearly 30 years ago, the Pillars of Creation shocked the astronomy world when they were captured by NASA’s famed Hubble Space Telescope. Now a new generation can enjoy a new, haunting spectacle after the US space agency’s $10 billion (£7.4 billion) James Webb Space Telescope imaged the same finger-like tendrils of gas and dust (pictured)
Hubble took the first image of the Pillars of Creation in 1995. This provided the first evidence that stars could be born inside pillars.
The new image was taken in mid-infrared light, which obscures the star’s brightness so it only captures flowing gas and dust. It provides a new way to experience and understand the astonishing composition.
Webb has an instrument that sees different wavelengths of infrared light.
In October, experts released the Pillars of Creation images from the Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam), before continuing with images from the Mid-Infrared Instrumentation (MIRI).
They have now stitched the images together to produce a haunting image that shows the best of both views, showing the rim of glowing dust where young stars are just beginning to form.
NIRCam reveals newly formed orange stars outside the pillars, while MRI shows layers of dust inside the formation.
“This is one of the reasons why this region is teeming with stars – dust is a key component of star formation,” said NASA.
The glowing red fingertips on the second pillar indicate active star formation, but the stars are babies — NASA estimates they are only 100,000 years old.
It takes millions of years to fully form.
“By combining images of the iconic Pillars of Creation from two cameras on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, the cosmos is framed in infrared glory,” wrote the Webb team.
They said it was “burning this star-forming region with new details”.
When knots of gas and dust of sufficient mass form at the poles, they begin to collapse under their own gravity, slowly heat up, and eventually form new stars.
“Newly formed stars are especially visible at the edges of the top two pillars – practically visible,” says Webb’s team.
Almost everything you see in these scenes is local.
The distant universe is largely closed from our view by the interstellar medium, consisting of sparse interstellar gas and dust, and our own Milky Way galaxy’s thick dust lane.
“As a result, stars have taken center stage in the web show Pillars of Creation.”
The Pillar of Creation is located in the constellation of the Snake.
New Super Space Telescope: Webb (pictured) has instruments that see in a wide range of infrared light wavelengths
In October, experts released images of the Pillars of Creation from a Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam).
Then follow with images from the medium infrared device (MIRI).
It contains a hot young star cluster, NGC6611, visible with modest telescopes in the back garden, which sculpts and illuminates the surrounding gas and dust, producing large hollow cavities and pillars, each several light years across.
The Hubble image taken in 1995 hinted that a new star was being born inside the pillar. Obstructed by dust, Hubble’s visible light image does not see inwards and proves that young stars are forming.
Then NASA brought Hubble back for a second visit, allowing them to compare the two photos.
Astronomers have noticed a changing jet-like feature shooting up from one of the newborn stars within the pillar.
The jet’s length increased by 60 billion miles between observations, indicating that the material inside the jet was moving at about 450,000 miles per hour.