The gleaming towers of cosmic dust and gas at the heart of the Eagle Nebula have inspired awe for decades since they were first captured by the Hubble Telescope. Now NASA issued the most detailed visualization of the iconic celestial structure, revealing all its dreamlike features across multiple wavelengths of light.
Using data from the Hubble and Webb Space Telescopes, NASA astrophysicists have put together an unprecedented journey through the Pillars of Creation, traveling through its three-dimensional structure and revealing the dust clouds and embedded stars that form its finger-like features. The 3D visualization is based on observation data from a paper published in the Meteoritic and planetary science log.
The 2.5-minute video lets viewers experience the Pillars of Creation in both visible light, as captured by Hubble, and infrared light, captured by Webb. “By flying past and between the pillars, viewers experience their three-dimensional structure and see how they look different in the Hubble view with visible light versus the Webb view with infrared light,” said Frank Summers, chief visualization scientist who led the film development team. for NASA’s Universe of Learning, it said in a statement. “The contrast helps them understand why we have more than one space telescope to observe different aspects of the same object.”
The Hubble telescope sees objects that glow in visible light at higher temperatures. Webb’s infrared vision, on the other hand, is sensitive to cooler objects with temperatures as low as hundreds of degrees. As a result, Webb can penetrate obscuring dust to see stars in the pillars. Hubble views the pillars with dark brown, opaque dust and bright yellow ionized gas against a greenish-blue background, while Webb’s image features orange and orange-brown dust that is nearly transparent with light blue ionized gas against a dark blue background.
The visualization also highlights several stages of star formation. At the top of the central pillar is an embedded, young protostar that glows bright red in infrared light. Then, near the top of the left pillar, a diagonal jet of material is seen being ejected from a newborn star. The jet indicates that a star has been born, even though we can’t see the star itself. Finally, a brand-new star shines at the tip of one of the left pillar’s protruding fingers.
The Pillars of Creation extends for about 4 to 5 light-years, a relatively small feature of the massive Eagle Nebula, which measures 70 by 55 light-years. The nebula is located 7,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Serpens, but is so bright that it can be seen with a small telescope. The pillars, meanwhile, were the first made famous by Hubble in 1995 with a stunning debut that remains one of the most iconic astronomical images of all time.
“When we combine observations from NASA’s space telescopes across different wavelengths of light, we broaden our understanding of the universe,” Mark Clampin, director of NASA’s astrophysics division, said in a statement. “The Pillars of Creation region continues to provide us with new insights that sharpen our understanding of star formation. With this new visualization, everyone can now experience this rich, captivating landscape in a new way.”
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