See Webb’s most beautiful image yet of the Pillars of Creation

By Georgina Torbet December 4, 2022

One of the most famous space images of all time is the Hubble Space Telescope’s image of the Pillars of Creation, originally taken in 1995 and revisited in 2014. This stunning structure of dust and gas is located in the Eagle Nebula and is remarkable both for its beauty and for the dynamic process of star formation going on within its clouds.

Earlier this year, the James Webb Space Telescope took its own images of this natural wonder, capturing images in both the near-infrared and mid-infrared wavelengths. Now, both of Webb’s images have been combined into one, showing a gorgeous new view of the famous structure.

The iconic Pillars of Creation from two cameras aboard the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. — By combining images of the iconic Pillars of Creation from two cameras aboard the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, the Universe has been framed in its infrared glory. Webb’s near-infrared image was fused with its mid-infrared image, setting this star-forming region ablaze with new details. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, J. DePasquale (STScI), A. Pagan (STScI), A. M. Koekemoer (STScI)

This image combines data from Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). The near-infrared range shows up features like the many stars in the background and the newly forming stars which are visible as orange dots around the pillars of dust, while the mid-infrared range shows the layers of dust which are displayed in colors ranging from orange to indigo depending on their density.

Combining images taken at different wavelengths like this allows an image to display features that would otherwise be invisible. In Webb’s mid-infrared image of the pillars, for example, very few stars are visible, while the near-infrared can’t penetrate the deep layers of dust to show such detail.

The pillars’ dust makes them such a busy region of star formation, as new stars are created when dust forms into knots which gradually attract more material until they collapse under their own gravity and become protostars. More and more material is drawn into these cores, getting hot and hotter due to friction, until eventually, the protostar reaches a sufficiently high core temperature that it begins fusing hydrogen into helium, radiating out heat and light and becoming a main sequence star.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Tech News

Georgina Torbet

Space Writer

Georgina is the Digital Trends space writer, covering human space exploration, planetary science, and cosmology. She…

Space

Scientists explain cosmic ‘question mark’ spotted by Webb space telescope

The shape of a question mark captured by the James Webb Space Telescope.

Considering the myriad of unknowns that still exist for scientists exploring the vastness of the universe, the recent discovery in deep space of what seems to be a giant question mark feels highly appropriate.

Captured by the powerful James Webb Space Telescope, the bright, distinctive object clearly bears the shape of a question mark, leaving some stargazers wondering if the cosmos is teasing us, or perhaps motivating us to keep on searching the depths of space for the secrets that it may reveal.

Space

James Webb telescope captures the gorgeous Ring Nebula in stunning detail

JWST/NIRcam composite image of the Ring Nebula. The images clearly show the main ring, surrounded by a faint halo and with many delicate structures. The interior of the ring is filled with hot gas. The star which ejected all this material is visible at the very centre. It is extremely hot, with a temperature in excess of 100,000 degrees. The nebula was ejected only about 4000 years ago. Technical details: The image was obtained with JWST's NIRCam instrument on August 4, 2022. Images in three different filters were combined to create this composite image: F212N (blue); F300M (green); and F335M (red).

A new image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows the stunning and distinctive Ring Nebula -- a gorgeous structure of dust and gas located in the constellation of Lyra. This nebula is a favorite among sky watchers as it faces toward Earth so we can see its beautiful structure, and because it is visible throughout the summer from the Northern Hemisphere. It is different from the Southern Ring nebula, which Webb has also imaged, but both are a type of object called a planetary nebula.

Located just 2,600 light-years away, the Ring Nebula is a structure of dust and gas that was first observed in the 1770s, when it was thought to be something like a planet. With advances in technology, astronomers realized it was not a planet, but rather a cloud of dust and gas, and thanks to highly detailed observations by space telescopes like Hubble and Webb, scientists have been able to see more of its complex structure. The nebula isn't a simple sphere or blob, but is rather a central, football-shaped structure surrounded by rings of different material.

Space

See how James Webb instruments work together to create stunning views of space

The irregular galaxy NGC 6822.

A series of new images from the James Webb Space Telescope shows the dusty, irregular galaxy NGC 6822 -- and the different views captured by various Webb instruments.

Located relatively close by at 1.5 million light-years from Earth, this galaxy is notable for its low metallicity. Confusingly, when astronomers say metallicity they do not mean the amount of metals present in a galaxy, but rather the amount of all heavy elements -- i.e., everything which isn't hydrogen or helium. This factor is important because the very earliest galaxies in the universe were made up almost entirely of hydrogen and helium, meaning they had low metallicity, and the heavier elements were created over time in the heart of stars and were then distributed through the universe when some of those stars went supernova.