Ace Nostalgia

NASA’s Webb takes star-filled portrait of pillars of creation

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. The three-dimensional pillars look like majestic rock formations, but are far more permeable. These columns are made up of cool interstellar gas and dust that appear – at times – semi-transparent in near-infrared light. 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. 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. Newly formed stars are the scene-stealers in this image from Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). These are the bright red orbs that typically have diffraction spikes and lie outside one of the dusty pillars. 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. 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. Young stars periodically shoot out supersonic jets that collide with clouds of material, like these thick pillars. This sometimes also results in bow shocks, which can form wavy patterns like a boat does as it moves through water. The crimson glow comes from the energetic hydrogen molecules that result from jets and shocks. This is evident in the second and third pillars from the top – the NIRCam image is practically pulsing with their activity. These young stars are estimated to be only a few hundred thousand years old. Although 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 no galaxies in this view. 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 of the deeper universe. This scene was first imaged by Hubble in 1995 and revisited in 2014, but many other observatories have also stared deeply at this region. Each advanced instrument offers researchers new details about this region, which is practically overflowing with stars. This tightly cropped image is set within the vast Eagle Nebula, which lies 6,500 light-years away.

TOP IMAGE….Telescope’s near-infrared-light view. The pillars look like arches and spires rising out of a desert landscape, but are filled with semi-transparent gas and dust, and ever changing. This is a region where young stars are forming – or have barely burst from their dusty cocoons as they continue to form. Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI).

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iNaturalist: UV Fluorescent Organisms Project

Garden Snail (Cornu aspersum) © Rand Workman

[Images 1 and 2 Description: A pair of photos showing a snail under full spectrum and UV light. The flesh of the snail is normally grey-brown and it’s shell is reddish brown. Under UV light, the flesh shines bright green with blue tips on the eyestalks. /End ID.]

True Puffballs (Genus Bovista) © Alan Rockefeller

[Images 3 and 4 Description: A pair of photos showing whole and cross-sectioned fungi under full spectrum and UV light. The fungi is normally cream-coloured on the outside and white on the inside. Under UV light, the white inside of the fungi shines bright green. /End ID.] 

Common Whitetail (Plathemis lydia) © Michelle

[Images 5 and 6 Description: A pair of photos showing a dragonfly under full spectrum and UV light. The dragonfly normally has a white tail. Under UV light, the tail shines bright red. /End ID.]

Stream Violet (Viola glabella) © Alan Rockefeller