Nearly 30 years ago, the “Pillars of Creation” shocked the astronomy world when it was captured by NASA’s famous Hubble Space Telescope, according to RT.
And now, NASA and the European Space Agency have unveiled a new image of the Epic Pillars of Creation, a beautiful, finger-like stick of gas and dust where stars are forming, captured by the sharp eyes of the “most powerful ever” $10 billion space telescope, according to James Webb of NASA agency.
The pillars of the universe resemble the “hand of ghosts”, and they are part of the Eagle Nebula – which is located 6,500 years from Earth in the constellation of the Serpent – and is known to be the source of star formation.
The latest image was taken in mid-infrared light, which is light that reduces the star’s brightness so that only gas and dust are captured. This provided a new way to discover and understand this amazing structure.
James Webb has instruments that see in different wavelengths of infrared light.
Last October, scientists released an image of the natural plume from the Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam), before following up with an image from the Medium Infrared Instrument (MIRI).
Now, scientists have stitched the images together to create a stunning image that features the best of both, showing the edge of the bright dust where young stars begin to form.
NIRCam reveals newly formed stars orange on the outer surface of the pillars, while the MIRI imaging shows the layers of dust that have formed.
“This is one of the reasons why this region is flooded with stars – the dust is very important for star formation,” NASA said.
Glowing red fingers on the second pillar show star formation. And these stars are just “children,” according to NASA, which estimates that they are less than 100,000 years old and have millions of years of complete formation.
When gas and dust particles are heavy enough in mass, they begin to collapse under their own gravity, slowly heat up, and eventually form new stars.
“The newly formed stars appear mostly on the edge of the two upper pillars – just visible,” James Webb’s team said.