NASA's Hubble Space Telescope made the Pillars of Creation famous with its first image in 1995, but revisited the scene in 2014 to reveal a sharper, wider view in visible light, shown above at left.
A new, near-infrared-light view from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, at right, helps us peer through more of the dust in this star-forming region. The thick, dusty brown pillars are no longer as opaque and many more red stars that are still forming come into view.
While the pillars of gas and dust seem darker and less penetrable in Hubble’s view, they appear more diaphanous in Webb’s.
The background of this Hubble image is like a sunrise, beginning in yellows at the bottom, before transitioning to light green and deeper blues at the top. These colors highlight the thickness of the dust all around the pillars, which obscures many more stars in the overall region.
In contrast, the background light in Webb’s image appears in blue hues, which highlights the hydrogen atoms, and reveals an abundance of stars spread across the scene. By penetrating the dusty pillars, Webb also allows us to identify stars that have recently – or are about to – burst free. Near-infrared light can penetrate thick dust clouds, allowing us to learn so much more about this incredible scene.
Both views show us what is happening locally. Although Hubble highlights many more thick layers of dust and Webb shows more of the stars, neither shows us the deeper universe. Dust blocks the view in Hubble’s image, but the interstellar medium plays a major role in Webb’s. It acts like thick smoke or fog, preventing us from peering into the deeper universe, where countless galaxies exist.
The pillars are a small region within the Eagle Nebula, a vast star-forming region 6,500 light-years from Earth.
Credits
Science
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Hubble Heritage Project (STScI, AURA)
Image Processing
Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | M16, Eagle Nebula, NGC 6611 |
| Object Description | Emission Nebula |
| R.A. Position | 18:18:48.17 |
| Dec. Position | -13:48:26.03 |
| Constellation | Serpens |
| Distance | 6,500 light-years (2,000 parsecs) |
| Dimensions | Image is approximately 8 light-years across. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | This image was created from HST data from proposal: (Z. Levay), and JWST data from proposal: (K. Pontoppidan) |
| Instrument | HST>WFC3/UVIS JWST>NIRCam |
| Exposure Dates | Sept 2014, 14 Aug 2022 |
| Filters | HST>F502N, F657N, F673N JWST>F090W, F187N, F200W, F335M, F444W, F470N |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | These images are composites of separate exposures acquired by the WFC3 instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope and the NIRCam instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope. Several filters were used to sample different wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are: HST Left> Blue: F502N, Green: F657N, Red: F673N Webb Right> Purple: F090W, Blue: F187N, Cyan: F200W, Yellow: F335M, Orange: F444W, Red: F470N |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
