A large number of stars that are still being born can be seen inside the formation.
of the United States space administration Nasa published by on Wednesday a new, highly detailed image of the formation called the Pillars of Creation.
The pillars of creation became known in 1995, when the Hubble space telescope recorded them in a colorful image. Later, Hubble took even more detailed pictures of it.
The identifiable formation consists of hydrogen gas and interstellar dust and is located in the Kotka nebula about thousands of light years from Earth.
The formation is huge. The largest of its pillars is several light years across. Its entire extent is more than 55 light years. A light year is the distance that light travels in one year, or about 9.46 trillion kilometers.
On the left, the Hubble space telescope image of the Pillars of Creation from 2014. On the right, a recent image taken by the Webb telescope.
Now According to NASA, the published image gives an even better understanding of star formation. Compared to the previous pictures, the Pillars of Creation do not look as transparent as before. Instead, a large number of stars that are still being born can be seen inside them, says Nasa in its announcement.
Because Webb observes thermal radiation, it can also see through the dust and gas clouds of space.
The radiation from stars near the pillars illuminates the pillars. Their radiation heats the gas, which is spread into space at the tips of the columns. When bigger stars are born in the pillars over the course of millions of years, their radiation increases and eventually they will probably destroy the pillars.
The colors of the images taken by Webb are created when image processors extract certain wavelengths from the object.
Below you can watch NASA’s introductory video about the new image of the Pillars of Creation. The video is also available for viewing directly from Youtube.
Short Webb, sent into space a year ago, is the largest, most powerful and most expensive space telescope of all time. The project has cost around ten billion euros. The telescope sent the first images in the summer.
Webb can see very far thanks to its 6.5 meter diameter main mirror.
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