See it: NASA’s Hubble, Webb telescopes produce new visualization of Pillars of Creation
The immense, dense columns of interstellar dust and gas form a breathtaking celestial spectacle, which NASA's Hubble Space Telescope made famous in 1995.
Pillars of Creation star seen in new visualization from NASA's Hubble, Webb telescopes
Using data from NASA's Hubble and Webb space telescopes, astronomers and artists modeled the iconic Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula (Messier 16 or M16) in three dimensions, creating a movie that allows viewers to fly past and among the pillars.
The Pillars of Creation in the heart of the Eagle Nebula are internationally celebrated for their mesmerizing and surreal beauty.
The immense, dense columns of interstellar dust and gas form a breathtaking celestial spectacle, which NASA's Hubble Space Telescope made famous in 1995.
Now, a new 3D visualization of these celestial structures has been released by NASA, incorporating data from NASA's Hubble and James Webb space telescopes.
In the Hubble version of the model (left), the pillars feature dark brown, opaque dust and bright yellow ionized gas set against a greenish-blue background. The Webb version (right) showcases orange and orange-brown dust that is semi-transparent, with light blue ionized gas against a dark blue background.
(Greg Bacon, Ralf Crawford, Joseph DePasquale, Leah Hustak, Christian Nieves, Joseph Olmsted, Alyssa Pagan, and Frank Summers (STScI), NASA's Universe of Learning / NASA)
This is the most comprehensive and detailed multiwavelength movie yet of this star-birthing region, according to NASA.
The video above gives stargazers and scientists a view of the three-dimensional structures of the pillars.
A mosaic of visible-light (Hubble) and infrared-light (Webb) views of the same frame from the Pillars of Creation visualization. The visualization sequence fades back and forth between these two models as the camera flies past and amongst the pillars. These contrasting views illustrate how observations from the two telescopes complement each other.
(Greg Bacon, Ralf Crawford, Joseph DePasquale, Leah Hustak, Christian Nieves, Joseph Olmsted, Alyssa Pagan, and Frank Summers (STScI), NASA's Universe of Learning / NASA)
Rather than an artistic interpretation, NASA says the video is based on observational data from a science paper led by Anna McLeod, an associate professor at the University of Durham in the United Kingdom.
The goal is to give viewers a more immersive experience, helping them better understand the flat, two-dimensional images captured by telescopes.