New View of "Pillars of Creation"

Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach in collaboration with NASA’s Universe of Learning partners: Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Video imagery:

·        Webb Space Telescope Near-Infrared Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; J. DePasquale, A. Koekemoer, A. Pagan (STScI)

 

Writer: Claire Blome

Designer: Leah Hustak

Science review: Dr. Quyen Hart

Education review: Jim Manning

Music from Music for Non-Profits

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A grid of photographs of celestial bodies moves up. A white line moves down and another across. Text, News from the universe. The text is above an image of Jupiter.

 

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Text, October 21, 2022. New View of "Pillars of Creation."

 

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has captured the iconic Pillars of Creation in near-infrared light.

 

Pillar-shaped brown and tan masses partially connected at the bottom project at an angle.

 

Text, The dense pillars are made of cool interstellar gas and dust, a perfect environment for star formation.

 

The background is filled with bright shining stars against dark and bright blue.

 

Text, Newly formed protostars appear as bright red orbs that lie outside the dusty pillars.

 

In a closer view, a bright star shines rays out toward the edges of the screen.

 

Text, Glowing red areas at the edges of pillars reveal where forming stars are ejecting material, heating up their dusty cocoons.

 

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Inside the end of one pillar is an amorphous shape of bright red. On the surface lower down are small spots of red. A hazy vertical band of dark red is near the bright shape at the end.

 

Text, Unlike other Webb images, distant galaxies are not visible.

 

A dense expanse of stars fill the screen with brown in the corner.

 

Text, A thick layer of gas and dust behind the nebula is drawn like a curtain, allowing the stars to take centerstage.

 

The dense expanse of bright stars, some larger and some smaller.

 

Text, This news was brought to you in part by the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.