James Webb Telescope captures ‘Pillars of Creation’
Hyderabad: Ever since the James Webb Telescope was launched in December 2021, NASA has been rolling out one out-of-the-world picture after another.
Recently, an image of ‘Pillars of Creation’ was shared by NASA. It is an image of three looming towers made of interstellar dust and gas. It looks semi-transparent at times when captured with near-infrared light.
The iconic creation is set within the vast Eagle Nebula, which lies 6,500 light-years away. NASA’s Hubble Telescope first captured the Pillars of Creation in 1995 and revisited it in 2014.
Sharing the image on their social media platforms, NASA wrote about how the telescope is helping identify more objects in space. “Why go back to where we’ve been before? Webb helps us identify far more precise counts of newborn stars, along with the quantities of gas and dust. This will deepen our understanding of how stars form and burst out of these dusty clouds over millions of years,” they wrote.
This picture by the James Webb Telescope highlights the thickness of interstellar dust surrounding these pillars which looks magnificent.
Giving the image description, they wrote, “There are three prominent pillars rising toward the top right. The left pillar is the largest and widest. The peaks of the second and third pillars are set off in darker shades of brown and have red outlines.”
They also added that the tips of the pillars appear tinged with what looks like lava. There are also tiny red dots at the edges of the pillars, which are newly born stars.
