In the interior of the three pillars of icy gas and dust, new stars form. And that’s exactly what can be seen in the image from the new James Webb telescope – the red spots are newly formed stars. Formed from the clouds’ gas and dust collapsing under their own gravity.
The phenomenon, located 6,500 light years from Earth, was first photographed in 1995 by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. With the new James Webb telescope, launched around Christmas last year, it can now be imaged with much greater clarity. Because the space telescope uses a camera that photographs in the near infrared (NIR), the three finger-like pillars become semi-transparent.
JWST is a joint project with American NASA, European ESA and Canadian CSA.