Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula – NIRCam

2022-10-25 – The James Webb Space Telescope's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) reveals the iconic Pillars of Creation in spectacular detail. 

The Pillars of Creation are clouds of dust and gas where new stars are forming. Newly formed stars are visible as bright red orbs that sometimes appear with eight diffraction spikes. The wavy lines that look like lava at the edges of the dust clouds are where young stars shoot out supersonic jets that collide with the clouds of material in the pillars. This image is set within the vast Eagle Nebula, located about 6,500 light-years away.

Webb's new view of the Pillars of Creation will help researchers revamp models of star formation. By identifying far more precise star populations, along with the quantities of gas and dust in the region, they will begin to build a clearer understanding of how stars form and burst out of these clouds over millions of years.

Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. (Credits: Canadian Space Agency, ESA, NASA, STScI, Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI))