Stunning new Webb Telescope image showcases the “Pillars of Creation”
Enlarge / The James Webb Space Telescope captured a stunning new view of the iconic Pillars of Creation.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has been the gift that keeps on giving, releasing one jaw-dropping image after another since the summer. Today, NASA released a stunning near-infrared camera image of the iconic "Pillars of Creation" in the Eagle Nebula, some 7,000-light-years away.
"I've been studying the Eagle Nebula since the mid-1990s, trying to see 'inside' the light-years long pillars that Hubble showed, searching for young stars inside them," Mark McCaughrean of the European Space Agency told BBC News. "I always knew that when James Webb took pictures of it, they would be stunning. And so they are."
The James Webb Space Telescope launched in December 2021 and, after a suspenseful sunshield and mirror deployment over several months, began capturing stunning images. First, there was the deep field image of the Universe, released in July. This was followed by images of exoplanet atmospheres, the Southern Ring Nebula, a cluster of interacting galaxies called Stephan's Quintet, and the Carina Nebula, a star-forming region about 7,600-light-years away. These images reportedly brought astronomers to tears.