The James Webb Space Telescope has released a spooky new photo of the iconic Pillars of Creation.
In a Thursday release, NASA wrote that the eerie image was taken by the $10 billion-dollar observatory’s Mid-Infrared Instrument, also known as MIRI.
The pillars of gas and Interstellar dust enshroud the thousands of stars that exist in the region.
Stars typically do not emit much mid-infrared light and many newly-formed stars are no longer surrounded by enough dust to be detected in mid-infrared light.
WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE OFFERS RARE LOOK INTO EARLY UNIVERSE
Mid-infrared light excels at examining gas and dust in detail.
Dust, however, is a major ingredient for star formation and – although the stars aren’t bright enough at these wavelengths to appear – it gleams at the edges.
In addition, MIRI observes younger stars that have not yet removed their dusty cloaks, seen as crimson orbs.
The blue stars are aging and have shed most layers of gas and dust.
WEBB TELESCOPE CAPTURES STUNNING IMAGE OF PILLARS OF CREATION
The Pillars of Creation have formed over many millennia.
Conversely, in the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) image of the pillars, stars fill the screen.
The Eagle Nebula landscape, some 6,500 light-years away, was first captured by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope in 1995 and revisited in 2014.
Notably, the bright red star sticking out of the topmost pillar’s southeastern edge, are larger than the size of our entire solar system.
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