If there is an iconic image of the universe, it is that of the Pillars of Creation. These plumes of cold molecular hydrogen and dust inside the great Eagle Nebula, 6,500 light-years away, were imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995 and again in 2014. Now, the brand-new James Webb, the best telescope ever the times, has captured its own version. And it takes your breath away.
The image takes on a new dimension, with countless new stars within dense clouds of gas and dust that were previously invisible. The three-dimensional pillars look like majestic rock formations, but they are much more permeable.
Newly formed protostars take center stage in this Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) image. These are the bright red orbs that normally have diffraction spikes and are found outside of one of the dusty pillars. When knots with enough mass form within the pillars of gas and dust, they begin to collapse under their own gravity, slowly heating up and eventually forming new stars.
On the left, the Pillars of Creation, photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2014. On the right, the much more detailed image from the James Webb
The wavy lines that look like lava are ejecta from stars that are still forming within the gas and dust. Young stars periodically launch jets that collide with clouds of material, such as these thick pillars. This also sometimes results in bow shocks, which can form undulating patterns like a boat does when moving through the water. The crimson glow comes from energetic hydrogen molecules that result from the jets and crashes. This is evident in the second and third pillars from above. These young stars are estimated to be only a few hundred thousand years old.
There are no galaxies in the image. Instead, a mix of translucent gas and dust known as the interstellar medium stands in the way.
previous photos
This scene was photographed by Hubble before, but many other observatories have also looked deeply into this region, such as ESA’s Herschel Telescope. Each advanced instrument provides researchers with tantalizing new details about this region, which is virtually teeming with stars.
Webb’s new view of the Pillars of Creation will help researchers revamp their models of star formation by identifying much more precise stellar populations, along with the amounts of gas and dust in the region.