Mark Megahan
The “Pillars of Creation” is one of the Hubble Space Telescope’s “most iconic images.” One of the best ways to show the massive improvement in detail provided by our latest and greatest equipment is by putting an image side by side with one of the best the previous latest and greatest had to offer. This new James Webb image is truly stunning. It also reveals ancient stars never seen before because they were hidden by clouds of dust.
Pillars of Creation side-by-side
The James Webb Space Telescope just zoomed in on the vast stellar nursery called “The Pillars of Creation.” It’s stunning infrared view reveals “countless previously unseen stars and intricate detail in towering clouds of gas sculpted by embedded protosuns.”
They’re a major landmark feature in the M-16 Eagle Nebula. It lies along the plane of the Milky Way galaxy.
The “easy-to-find patch of nebulosity” sits some 6,500 light years from Earth making the pillars one of the favorite targets for amateur astronomers.
All they have to do is point their equipment at the constellation Serpens, which sits along the border of Sagittarius. The structure was first spotted in 1745-46 by the Swiss astronomer Jean-Philippe Loys de Chéseaux.
Back yard stargazers can find the pillars by focusing on the center of the eagle-shaped nebula. It’s an easy target because it spans across a full 70 light years of space.
While Earth based astronomers have been studying them for years, it wasn’t until Hubble came online for the “wow factor” to fully kick in.
Most recognized Hubble photo
In 1995, Hubble Space Telescope revealed “the true nature of the pillars.” The image Hubble captured “wowed the public and was soon one of the most recognized and widely published photos ever captured by the venerable observatory.”
While Hubble’s work has been consistently spectacular, its limited by being restricted to observing only visible light. Justifying the $10 billion price tag, the James Webb Space Telescope has infrared vision.
When Webb got a glimpse of the Pillars of Creation, the cutting edge instruments collected terabytes of raw data revealing “thousands of previously unseen stars” in the interstellar medium.
The famous towers themselves “show the intricate effects of radiation from newly formed stars sculpting finger-like extensions, swirls and eddies in rich brown hues.”
The pillars have an ordinary explanation despite their visually amazing structure. They’re the effects of young and unruly adolescent stars. “These young stars are estimated to be only a few hundred thousand years old, and will continue to form for millions of years.”
Until then, you can expect the cosmic equivalent of graffiti and stolen cars. “Young stars periodically shoot out jets that can interact within clouds of material, like these thick pillars of gas and dust,” NASA explains. “This sometimes also results in bow shocks, which can form wavy patterns like a boat does as it moves through water.“
