Nearly 30 years ago, the “pillars of creation” shocked the astronomy world when they were captured by NASA’s famed 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 keen eyes of the “most powerful ever $10 billion worth of space telescopes, according to the NASA agency’s James Webb.
The pillars of the universe resemble the ‘ghost hand’, and are part of the Eagle Nebula – which is located 6,500 years from Earth in the constellation Serpens – and is known to be the source of star formation.
The last image was taken in mid-infrared light, which is light that dims the star’s brightness so it captures only gas and dust. This has 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 merged the images to create a stunning image that presents the best of both worlds, showing the edge of the bright dust where young stars begin to form.
NIRCam reveals newly formed orange stars on the outer surface of the pillars, while MIRI imaging shows the dust layers that have formed.
“This is one reason why this region is flooded with stars. The dust is very important for star formation,” NASA said.
The glowing red fingers on the second pillar show star formation. And these stars are just “babies,” according to NASA, which estimates they are less than 100,000 years old and have millions of years of complete formation.
When the 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 mainly on the edge of the two upper, barely visible pillars,” said James Webb’s team.
