The beauty of the universe is infinite. The area of the Pillars of Creation was captured in 1995 by Hubble. But now, the James Webb Telescope shows them as never before. A spectacular shot of the stars of the grandest space landscape.
NASA says new stars are forming in the Pillars of Creation. They are inside dense clouds of gas and dust. These three-dimensional pillars look like majestic rock formations. However, they are much more permeable as they are made of cold interstellar gas and dust. At times, they appear semi-transparent in near-infrared light.
Majestic landscape
The image captured by Webb will help researchers revamp their models of star formation. It identifies much more precise counts of newly formed stars, as well as the amounts of gas and dust.
“Over time, they will begin to develop a clearer understanding of how stars form. And how they sprout from these dust clouds over millions of years,” detailed NASA.
In the image released, newly formed stars can be seen. Soon they will begin to collapse under their own gravity, heat up and eventually form new stars.
What looks like lava in the pillars are actually ejections from stars still forming within the gas and dust. Young stars launch supersonic jets. They collide with clouds of material, like the pillars.
“The crimson glow comes from the energetic hydrogen molecules that result from the jets and collisions. These young stars are estimated to be only a few hundred thousand years old.”
New images
There are no galaxies in this view. A mixture of translucent gas and dust known as the interstellar medium in the densest part of the disk of our galaxy, the Milky Way, blocks the view of the deeper universe.
The Pillars of Creation were first imaged by Hubble in 1995. It was revisited in 2014. “Each advanced instrument offers researchers new details. This region is practically bursting with stars.” And that makes it the grandest space landscape.
