The Pillars of Creation they are well known to fans and experts in space science. A structure of dust and gas is found in the Eagle Nebula and is remarkable both for its beauty and for the dynamic process of star formation that takes place within its clouds.
Recently, the James Webb Space Telescope he took his own pictures of this natural wonder, capturing photos at near-infrared and mid-infrared wavelengths. Now, both images of the Webb have been combined into one, showing a beautiful new view of the famous structure.
According to the report published on the website of Digital Trendsthis image combines data from the telescope’s Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid Infrared Instrument (MIRI).
The near infrared range shows features like the many stars in the background and the newly formed ones that are visible as orange dots around the dust columnswhile the mid-infrared range shows the dust layers displayed in colors ranging from orange to indigo depending on their density.
Combining images taken at different wavelengths like this allows one image to show features that would otherwise be invisible. Very few stars are visible in Webb’s mid-infrared image of the pillars, whereas the near-infrared cannot penetrate deep layers of dust to show such detail.
A phenomenon photographed at different times
The report recalls one of the most famous space images of all time, precisely of the Pillars of Creation, originally taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995 and revised in 2014.
The dust from the pillars makes them a very active region of star formation.as new stars are created when dust forms knots that gradually pull in more material until they collapse under their own gravity and become protostars.
The cores pull in more material, getting hotter and hotter due to friction, until finally the protostar reaches a high enough core temperature to begin fusing hydrogen into helium, radiating heat and light, and becoming a main-sequence star.