Photographing Star Dust: NASA’s Hubble and Webb Telescopes Show Pillars of Creation In New Light
- Liz Publika
- Jul 3
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 15
by Liz Publika
Time and technology have an interesting relationship; as technology improves, we are able to glimpse back further and further, detecting what was quite literally concealed by time. From discovering the colors of dinosaur feathers to uncovering ancient cities buried deep beneath our feet to photographing star dust that plays a role in the creation of the universe, our reach is ever increasing. It’s an impressive thought, considering that the timeline between us and those events keeps extending every day.
Launched back in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope has spent over three decades taking groundbreaking high-resolution optical, ultraviolet, and near-infrared imagery. Its low-Earth orbit, approximately 350 miles (570 kilometers) above the surface of the earth, was free from the distortion of our atmosphere, allowing it to capture visuals that took our breath away. Among those is the first true image of The Pillars of Creation taken in 1995.
The magnificent columns of interstellar gas and dust are located about 6,500 light-years away, tucked inside the Eagle Nebula, in the Serpens constellation. We have known about them for some time. First captured by John Charles Duncan in 1920, thanks to a photographic plate taken with the Mount Wilson Observatory 60-inch telescope — the largest operating telescope in the world when it was completed in 1908 — the resulting black-and-white, low-resolution image was nothing that could shock or awe.
And yet, when Hubble took those unforgettable snapshots (all 32 of them) less than a century later, the image they produced left an unmistakable dent in our psyche. The Pillars became a part of our cultural identity. What we saw also confirmed that they were still making stars in real time. And so we returned to them, again and again, trying to get a better look and form a deep connection, as if deciphering their nature will lead to a more nuanced understanding of ours. We got that chance in 2022.
The James Webb Space Telescope, which was blasted into the sky on the Ariane 5 rocket at the tail end of 2021, captured new visuals of the Pillars of Creation utilizing its powerful NIRCam, the telescope’s primary near-infrared imager. Just over a century after Duncan's first exposure of the Pillars, new technology allowed us to peer straight through the dust, revealing thousands of hidden nascent stars, energetic stellar ejections, and the exact processes of star birth.
A cosmic phenomenon thousands of light-years away suddenly feels a little closer, thanks to the evolving power of technology. And, perhaps, it's the perceived proximity that makes their fate harder to accept; the Pillars are also dying. Intense ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds from massive, burning stars nearby are violently blasting the gas away, ultimately destroying the pillars and halting star birth. But that's just how it goes. The cycle of life plays out in the cosmos: ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
From NASA:
"This scientific visualization explores the iconic Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula (Messier 16 or M16) using data from NASA's Hubble and Webb space telescopes.
Based on scientific results, astronomers and artists modeled this striking formation in three dimensions and created a movie that allows viewers to fly past and among the pillars. What can appear to be three pillars in a two-dimensional image separates into four dust clouds with ionized gas streaming away from each in the three-dimensional model.
As the virtual camera flies through the model, the view shifts between the visible-light and infrared-light perspectives. Viewers explore the contrasts between Hubble's and Webb's observations, which demonstrate how the telescopes complement each other by probing different scientific aspects of the clouds.
The Pillars of Creation get their nickname from the fact that stars are forming within these dust clouds. The visual tour highlights various stages of star formation, including an embedded protostar at the top of the central pillar, bipolar jets from a hidden star in the process of forming in the upper part of the left pillar, and a newborn star in the middle of the left pillar."
Credit: Gregory Bacon (STScI), Ralf Crawford (STScI), Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Leah Hustak (STScI), Danielle Kirshenblat (STScI), Christian Nieves (STScI), Joseph Olmsted (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI), Frank Summers (STScI), Robert Hurt (Caltech, Caltech/IPAC); Science Advisor: Anna McLeod (Durham University); Music: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)