Recent Webb Telescope photo brings an entirely new look at the Pillars of Creation

Dec 6, 2022

Dunja Djudjic

Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

Recent Webb Telescope photo brings an entirely new look at the Pillars of Creation

Dec 6, 2022

Dunja Djudjic

Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

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Pillars of Creation is certainly one of the most iconic space photos we know. Originally shot by Hubble in 1995, it was reshot 20 years later, and seven more years later with NASA’s brand new tool, James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST for short.

In its most recent photo, JWST brings us an entirely new look at the famous gas and dust pillars. Thanks to its infrared cameras, we get to see this star-forming region with details we’ve never seen before.

The Pillars of Creation are a part of the “Eagle Nebula,” also called M16. Thanks to Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), you can see a bunch of stars which primarily show up in near-infrared light. This light also reveals thousands of newly formed stars, and NASA points you to look for “bright orange spheres that lie just outside the dusty pillars.”

On the other hand, Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) is the reason why dust is on full display. It’s best visible in mid-infrared light, and you can see it as the layers of “diffuse, orange dust that drape the top of the image, relaxing into a V.” The color change is due to different density of the dust: the indigo-colored parts show the areas where the dust is the densest.

image credits: NASA, ESA, CSA and STScI with image processing by Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI) and Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI).

And now, for comparison (and more space beauty), here are the different versions of the same subject.

Hubble’s first image of Pillars of Creation, April 1995; credits: NASA, ESA, STScI, J. Hester and P. Scowen (Arizona State University)
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s mid-infrared view of the Pillars of Creation, October 2022; credits: SCIENCE: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
IMAGE PROCESSING: Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) image, October 2022; credits:SCIENCE: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
IMAGE PROCESSING: Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

[via Imaging Resource]

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Dunja Djudjic

Dunja Djudjic

Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

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