NASA recently released a stunning 3D depiction of the Pillars of Creation, using data from the Hubble and James Webb satellite telescopes.
According to Science Daily, this was the most thorough and detailed multiwavelength video to date that depicted these star-creating clouds.
The Pillars of Creation at the core of the Eagle Nebula, first famous by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope in 1995, have captured the minds of people all around the globe with their ethereal beauty.
“By flying past and among the pillars, viewers encounter their three-dimensional structure and see why they look different in the Hubble visible-light view compared to the Webb infrared-light view,” said Frank Summers, principal visualisation scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore. He also oversaw the movie creation team for NASA’s Universe of Learning.
“The contrast explains why we have multiple space telescopes to observe different aspects of the same object,” he noted.
The four Pillars of Creation, consisting mostly of cold molecular hydrogen and dust, are eroding due to the powerful winds and harsh ultraviolet radiation of adjacent hot, newborn stars.
Also, finger-like structures bigger than the solar system extend from the summits of the pillars. Embryonic stars can be lodged in these fingers. The tallest pillar spans three light-years. These three light years represent three-quarters of the distance between our Sun and the next closest star.
