The James Webb Super Telescope on Wednesday (19) released an unprecedented image of the Pillars of Creation, one of the most famous structures in astronomy. (See image above).
The area in the heart of The Eagle Nebula, a mass of dust and gas 6500 light-years from Earth. The cosmic formation became very popular after the Hubble telescope recorded the iconic space cloud in 1995.
According to the joint statement from NASA and the European and Canadian space agencies (also responsible for Webb), the new shot of the Pillars of Creation shows a familiar sight, but reveals details never before seen by any telescopes that have reached their signal. lenses for the structure.
“The James Webb Space Telescope has captured a very lush and detailed landscape,” the US space agency said.
In the left record, Hubble’s famous image of the Pillars of Creation. On the right, a web log. Photo: NASA/Disclosure
The nebula in which the structure is located, also known as M 16It was discovered in 1745 by the Swiss astronomer Jean-Philippe Louise de Chisot, and serves as a stellar nursery, that is, a star forming region. (Hence the name Pillars of Creation).
In the new image released by Webb, you can see these newly formed stars in pink and red. According to NASA, some of these young stars are “only hundreds of thousands of years old.”
The agency further explains that while the plumes look like solid rock formations at first glance, they are actually quite permeable, because they are made of interstellar gas and dust.
It is now expected that this new high-resolution image and data collected by the super telescope will help astronomers better understand the mysteries behind how these dusty regions function.
