NASA Webb Telescope Unveils Soul-Haunting New ‘Pillars of Creation’ View – CNET

Few things encapsulate the wonders of space like the epic Pillars of Creation, a set of gorgeous finger-like tendrils of gas and dust where stars are formed. On Wednesday, NASA and the European Space Agency revealed another fresh look at the pillars from the sharp eyes of the James Webb Space Telescope.

The pillars are a small but scenic part of the Eagle Nebula. They rose to prominence thanks to an eye-catching view captured by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995. Webb’s ability to see with its infrared eyes has given us a new way of experiencing and understanding the haunting formation.

JWST has instruments that see in different wavelengths of infrared. The telescope team previously released a Pillars of Creation view from the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) in October and then followed that up with an image from its Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). Putting the two together gives us the best of both worlds.

NIRCam’s contribution highlights newly formed stars that appear in orange outside the pillars. MIRI puts a spotlight on layers of dust seen in the gauzy orange V-shaped formation near the top of the image. The ghostly pillars are also packed with dust. “This is one of the reasons why the region is overflowing with stars — dust is a major ingredient of star formation,” NASA said.

The glowing red fingertip on the second pillar is an indication of active star formation embedded within. Those stars are just babies, with NASA estimating them to be only a few hundred thousand years old. They have millions of years of formation ahead of them.

Webb is the shiny new kid on the space telescope block, though it’s seen as a complement to Hubble rather than a replacement. This means that instead of having one iconic view of the Pillars of Creation, we now have several, each one glorious in its own way.