The European Space Agency has published a new image of the "Pillars of Creation" taken by a telescope
Visible in the near infrared rangestars, the study authors explain. The camera that NIRCam uses with it displays thousands of young stars that have just formed. They are bright orange and yellow dots that can be seen behind dusty pillars.
Combined near and mid-infrared image. Source: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, J. DePasquale (STScI), A. Pagan (STScI), A. M. Koekemoer (STScI).
In contrast, a mid-infrared instrument(MIRI) captures stars worse, but it captures interstellar dust well. For example, it was thanks to him that it became possible to see a dense cloud of dust shining in the upper central part of the image with orange light.
The dust also forms spire-like pillars thatextend from bottom left to top right. This is one of the reasons why this region is filled with stars - dust is the main component of star formation. When clumps of gas and dust with sufficient mass form in the pillars, they begin to collapse under the influence of their own gravitational attraction, slowly heat up and eventually form new stars. The newly formed stars are especially visible along the edges of the two upper pillars - they literally break out onto the stage.
NIRCam Image
Image by MIRI
Near-infrared imaging (NIRCam): NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; J.DePasquale, A.Koekemoer, A.Pagan (STScI)
Mid-Infrared Imaging (MIRI): NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, J. DePasquale (STScI), A. Pagan (STScI)
On top of the middle "pillar" you can seewavy red areas. These are also sites of active star formation. The stars here are even younger and very active. The lava-like formations in the image correspond to periodic powerful mass ejections from these stars, which are only a few hundred thousand years old.
The Pillars of Creation is a small region inthe vast Eagle Nebula, which lies 6,500 light-years from Earth. Almost all the objects that are visible in the picture belong to this region of the universe. The density of dust in the Pillars of Creation hinders the propagation of light from more distant objects.
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