Representatives of the American space agency NASA have published the first image of the well-known "Pillars of creation", made by NIRCam camera space telescope James Webb. And the other day in a network there is a second picture of "Pillars", made in a different range already other camera telescope, the camera MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument). Naturally, these images are radically different from each other, and each person can decide for himself which one he likes best. But scientifically, the two images complement each other, providing researchers with a wealth of new information.
As a reminder to our readers, the Pillars of Creation are large structures of cosmic gas and dust, located near the constellation of Eagle, 6,500 light years from Earth. The Pillars themselves are about 5 light years long.
Back to the new image. Although it was published the other day, the James Webb telescope took it back on August 14 this year. Such a delay is due to the need to process the "raw" data and translate the different wavelengths of mid-infrared light into the corresponding region of the visible part of the spectrum.
Compared to the previous image, there are virtually no images of stars in the new one. The columns of gas and dust, which shone in rich orange hues from the NIRCam view, have taken on pale blue hues with pale orange areas. And while in the first image the Pillars are more associated with the hand of a man (or God) from Michelangelo's fresco The Creation of Adam, in the second we see a zombie hand extending its fingers to its victim.
The mid-infrared range, in which the James Webb telescope's MIRI camera operates, provides scientists with a wealth of information about the shape, composition and other parameters of gas-dust cosmic clouds. "The stars at the ends of these massive dust columns have recently scattered the material surrounding them across space. But these stars themselves look reddish because they are still enveloped in gas-dust cocoons," the researchers wrote. "The bluish tint is that of older stars, which have already had time to disperse matter and clear the space around them. And the lower left corner of the last image shows dark regions that represent dense clusters of already cooled matter."
And to recap, the James Webb Space Telescope began taking full images on July 12 this year. This mission is set to last for 20 years, unless something out of the ordinary happens. And if you want to keep up to date with what the telescope is observing at the time, there is a special bot on Twitter for that. And the new image in its full resolution and maximum quality can be viewed and downloaded from the official website of NASA.
