The "Pillars of Creation" as seen by the James Webb Space Telescope
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the largest and most powerful space telescope ever made, recently observed the so-called "Pillars of Creation", the three huge columns formed by interstellar gas and dust visible inside the Eagle Nebula, about 6.500 light years away from Earth.
The image recalls - albeit with a much higher definition - the observations made in the 1995 by the Hubble Space Telescope, which made it possible to discover many things about the processes that lead to the formation of stars, so much so that at that time it was considered one of the best space images ever taken.
The name of the great columns of gas and dust does not refer to the theological concept of creation (the act by which a divinity creates the universe out of nothing), but to the fact that the turbulent Eagle Nebula hosts several crucibles of stars: points in which new celestial bodies are formed.
One of the thing scientists observe by comparing the two pictures is that the rock-like shapes are more permeable.
The dusts and gases are heated by the very intense radiation produced by the stars that are forming inside the pillars, and at the same time they are eroded and blown away by the stellar winds. The material visible along the contours of the pillars is heated by the forming stars to such an extent that it evaporates towards the outside of the three large columns.
Scientists hypothesize that the formation of the pillars took place from top to bottom: their upper part (of the previous image) is extremely dense and creates the effect of a sort of cascade of dust and gas. The spaces between the three pillars have been partially cleared by strong stellar winds generated by a cluster of nearby stars.
