James Webb Space Telescope Captures Breathtaking Portrait Of Pillars Of Creation

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James Webb Space Telescope Captures Portrait Of Pillars Of Creation
Photo Credit: NASA/James Webb

James Webb Space Telescope is at it yet again. This time around, the space observatory has captured one of the most beautiful sights in the cosmos -- “Pillars of Creation.” The image shows cool, dense clouds of hydrogen gas and dust located around 6,500 light-years away in the Serpens constellation.

 

This isn’t the first time this scene has been chronicled, the legendary Hubble Space Telescope captured it in 1995 and 2014. However, the James Webb Space Telescope has offered a whole new perspective that will enable astronomers to observe these gaseous clouds in detail.

 
James Webb Space Telescope Captures Portrait Of Pillars Of Creation
Photo Credit: NASA

Where Are These Pillars Of Creation?

These pillars are located at the center of what scientists refer to as Messier 16 (M16), or the eagle Nebula. It is a region where stars are formed. Webb leveraged its infrared detectors to look past the light-scattering effects of the dust around the pillars, allowing it to observe the activity of the newborn stars.

The huge stars nearby M16’s pillars emit intense ultraviolet light that sculpts and illuminates the pillars. The UV radiation is also the reason the towers are getting dismantled. Even if humans teleport themselves to this location, they might not find any towers there. We can only see them because the JWST is looking into the past. The light that the space telescope detects has taken around 6,500 years to reach its famous golden mirrors.

James Webb Space Telescope is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency). It embraced the skies in December 2021 and is regarded as the successor to the legendary Hubble Space Telescope. But Hubble seems to have no plans of stopping anytime soon.

James Webb Vs Hubble

Recently, both space telescopes focused their lenses on the spiral galaxy IC 5332 which is located more than 29 million light-years away from Earth. James Webb used the MIRI instrument to observe the skeletal-like structure of the IC 5332 galaxy’s spiral arms. The image captured by the JWST shows the galaxy in higher detail compared to the image taken from the Hubble Space Telescope.

However, there are times when these two space telescopes join forces. Recently, both space observatories took a closer look at the galaxy pair VV 191, observing how light from the galaxy filters through the spiral arms of the galaxy on the right side. This image has allowed astronomers to study the dust in the spiral galaxy.

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