Amazing “Pillars of Creation” captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope for the first time EVER!
NASA's most eagle-eyed observatory yet has done it again.
The James Webb Space Telescope has returned an image of the famous "Pillars of Creation" in infrared light that's the sharpest, most detailed portrait of the spectacular star-forming region ever seen.
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The Pillars of Creation are iconic, dense clouds of gas and dust in which new stars form, and they first became popularized when NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope imaged them in 1995.
Now, using the advanced instruments of the James Webb Space Telescope, scientists can observe its lush landscape in highly-precise detail.
The new image will enable researchers to enhance their star formation models by identifying more precise counts of newly formed stars and quantities of gas and dust in the region.
This data will further our understanding of how stars form and burst out of these dusty clouds over millions of years.
What exactly is the James Webb Space Telescope?
James Webb is an international program led by NASA in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
The groundbreaking telescope is equipped with a plethora of advanced instruments that will help to broaden our understanding of the Universe.
In the coming years, Webb will help solve the greatest mysteries of the Universe, allowing us to observe distant planets, stars, and enigmatic structures and solve the mystery of our origins.
The telescope has now attained the most detailed image to date of the Pillars of Creation.
Let’s analyze the pillars of creation!
The Pillars of Creation consist of three-dimensional pillars that resemble intergalactic rock formations but are, in fact, permeable.
The columns are comprised of cool interstellar gas and dust that sometimes appear semi-transparent in near-infrared light.
Employing Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera revealed newly formed stars – these bright red orbs usually have diffraction spikes and lie outside one of the dusty pillars.
When knots with significant enough mass form within the gas and dust pillars, they start to collapse under their own gravity, become hotter, and ultimately form new stars.

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