This tightly cropped image is set within the vast Eagle Nebula, which lies 6,500 light-years away. Each advanced instrument offers researchers new details about this region, which is practically overflowing with stars. This scene was first imaged by Hubble in 1995 and revisited in 2014, but many other observatories have also stared deeply at this region. Instead, a mix of translucent gas and dust known as the interstellar medium in the densest part of our Milky Way galaxy’s disk blocks our view to much of the of the deeper universe. These young stars are estimated to be only a few hundred thousand years old.Īlthough it may appear that near-infrared light has allowed Webb to “pierce through” the clouds to reveal great cosmic distances beyond the pillars, there are almost no galaxies in this view. This is evident in the second and third pillars from the top – the NIRCam image is practically pulsing with their activity. The crimson glow comes from the energetic hydrogen molecules that result from jets and shocks. This sometimes also results in bow shocks, which can form wavy patterns like a boat does as it moves through water. Young stars periodically shoot out supersonic jets that collide with clouds of material, like these thick pillars. What about those wavy lines that look like lava at the edges of some pillars? These are ejections from stars that are still forming within the gas and dust. When knots with sufficient mass form within the pillars of gas and dust, they begin to collapse under their own gravity, slowly heat up, and eventually form new stars. These are the bright red orbs that typically have diffraction spikes and lie outside one of the dusty pillars. Newly formed stars are the scene-stealers in this image from Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). Over time, they will begin to build a clearer understanding of how stars form and burst out of these dusty clouds over millions of years. Webb’s new view of the Pillars of Creation, which were first made famous when imaged by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope in 1995, will help researchers revamp their models of star formation by identifying far more precise counts of newly formed stars, along with the quantities of gas and dust in the region.

These columns are made up of cool interstellar gas and dust that appear – at times – semi-transparent in near-infrared light. The three-dimensional pillars look like majestic rock formations, but are far more permeable. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured a lush, highly detailed landscape – the iconic Pillars of Creation – where new stars are forming within dense clouds of gas and dust. 21, 2022: The story below has been updated to clarify what is visible in the James Webb Space Telescope’s Pillars of Creation NIRCam image. The strong gravitational lensing and duplication in the new images also give researchers more information to work with than normal, he added.Editor’s Note, Oct. SN H0pe is a particularly important standard candle because it is the second most distant type 1a supernova ever detected, Siegel wrote. By comparing these standard candles at various distances from Earth, scientists can work out exactly how fast they are moving away from us and can then deduce the expansion rate of the universe. These bright explosions all have near-equal initial luminosity and dim over time at the same rate. Less than three months after its initial launch, it finally happened: the James Webb Space Telescope revealed its first telescope alignment evaluation image.For the first time, humanity’s latest. Type 1a supernovas involve a white dwarf star stealing matter from a binary partner star, before reaching critical mass and exploding. SN H0pe could help solve the Hubble tension because it is a type 1a supernova, which astronomers refer to as a 'standard candle' - an incredibly reliable reference point from which we can measure the universe's expansion, Siegel wrote. The conundrum has even caused some researchers to declare it a crisis in cosmology. This problem has confused scientists for decades because there is no clear reason why one method should produce a different result from the other, Siegel wrote. In this example, the light of a galaxy travels through curved space-time surrounding a galaxy cluster. A diagram that shows how gravitational lensing works.

Hubble vs webb images