NASA’s recent shots of this star nursery reveal a level of detail never seen before. The JWST, using its Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) instrument, zoomed in on a small section of the vast Eagle Nebula, located some 6,500 light years away, where knots of dust and gas have pulled together, compelled by the force of their own gravity, heated up, and begun the early stages of forming new stars.
Stretched out like long, gnarly fingers, these accumulations of gas and space dust are the most notable features of the Pillars of Creation. Just beyond their reach, infant stars display diffraction spikes, looking like trillions of glittering diamonds from afar.
Looking closely at the majestic, rock-like formations of the Pillars, you can see wave-like undulations flowing outward from them, which, according to NASA, result from jets of gas being ejected from protostars being born within. This can sometimes cause wavy patterns that look like the wake of a boat traveling through the water. The brightly-glowing crimson masses inside these dusty pillars are caused by energetic hydrogen molecules resulting from these jets. These new young stars are estimated to be only a few hundred thousand years old. Only indeed.
The penetrating sensors of the JWST’s NIRCam seem to see right through the nebula, as though it was almost transparent, yet nowhere in this picture can be seen distant galaxies beyond our Milky Way. The tightly cropped view focuses on the densest part of our galaxy where translucent gas and dust called interstellar medium obscure more distant regions of the universe.
The heightened precision of JWST’s new picture of the Pillars of Creation will help researchers to revamp their models of star formation, allowing them to count more precisely the number of stars inside this cosmic nursery, and measure the quantity of gas and dust in its vicinity. “Over time, [these data] will begin to build a clearer understanding of how stars form and burst out of these dusty clouds over millions of years,” NASA said.
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