(ORDO NEWS) — Scientists have combined images of the iconic “Pillars of Creation” taken by cameras aboard the James Webb Space Telescope.
The near-infrared image was merged with the mid-infrared image, revealing new details in this star-forming region.
Stars are mostly visible in near infrared light. We can see them in the picture thanks to the NIRCam near infrared camera.
The image also shows thousands of newborn stars – look for bright orange spheres that lie just behind the dusty pillars.
In the middle infrared light, dust is well displayed. Thanks to the MIRI instrument, we see layers of scattered orange dust that cover the top of the image in a V-shape.
The densest patches of dust are deep indigo shades, obscuring what’s going on inside the pillars.
The dust also forms spire-like pillars that extend from the bottom left to the top right. Dust is the main component of star formation.
When clumps of gas and dust of sufficient mass form in the pillars, they begin to collapse under the influence of their own gravitational attraction, slowly heat up and eventually form new stars.
Young stars are especially visible along the edges of the top two columns.
At the top of the second column, wavy details in red hint at the presence of even more stars. These stars are still very young and quite active.
They are estimated to be only a few hundred thousand years old and will continue to form for millions of years.
Almost everything we see in the image is part of this area.
The distant Universe is largely hidden from our view both by the interstellar medium, which consists of rarefied gas and dust located between stars, and by a thick band of dust in our Milky Way galaxy.
The “Pillars of Creation” is a small region within the vast Eagle Nebula, which lies 6,500 light-years away.
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