Webb Telescope Shows the Pillars of Creation Like You’ve Never Seen Them Before

The Pillars of Creation, a monumental arm of the Eagle Nebula, has just been imaged by the space telescope.

The pillars are so large that they're named after them. The tendrils of gas and dust are like the fingers of a Cosmic hand. A recent image shows the bright red sites of new star births.

There are small red dots on the edges of the pillars. The stars are being ejected from the clouds. The jets of material that hit the gas in the pillars cause hydrogen to glow.

There is a cloud of dust and gas about 6,500 light-years away from Earth. The Pillars of Creation are an arm of the larger structure and measure about 5 light years long.

The pillars became famous when they were imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope. The site was re- imaged by Hubble. It is clear from the side-by-side comparison that the new image is amazing. The Space Telescope Science Institute has full-resolution, compressed versions of these images.

In Hubble's view, the pillars are brown and turbid, but they appear to be glowing. There is a sea of lapis lazuli gas and it is turning into a bedazzlement of stars. The hydrogen atoms in the gas are highlighted in the image. The dense clouds of dust and gas allow the telescope to see previously unknown regions.

The reach of the pillars evoked Michelangelo's famous Creation of Adam. The image reminds us of how dynamic space is, even on massive scales, and that what appears in Hubble's view seems more animated from the perspective of the astronomer.

The most ancient light we can see, the structure of the planets nearest to us, and how stars are born are just some of the things that will be looked at in the months to come.

Thanks to a handyTwitter bot, you can keep track of what Webb is watching. The objects they describe don't do justice to the words they use. It is impossible to describe the beauty of space as seen through the palanter.

The colors in the telescope images are questionable.