Iconic 'Pillars of Creation' imaged by NASA's James Webb: Side-by-side with Hubble here

In a major breakthrough, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's James Webb Space Telescope has captured a lush, highly detailed landscape – the iconic Pillars of Creation – where new stars are forming within dense clouds of gas and dust. In the stunning picture, the American space agency said that the three-dimensional pillars look like majestic rock formations, but are far more permeable. The columns are made up of cool interstellar gas and dust that appear – at times – semi-transparent in near-infrared light.

According to NASA, it has used Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) to capture the image of newly formed stars. While explaining the bright red orbs that lie outside one of the dusty pillars, it said when knots with sufficient mass form within the pillars of gas and dust, they begin to collapse under their own gravity, which slowly heats up, and eventually form new stars.

What are THE wavy lines that look like lava at the edges of some pillars? 

According to NASA, these are ejections from stars that are still forming within the gas and dust. "Young stars periodically shoot out supersonic jets that collide with clouds of material, like these thick pillars. This sometimes also results in bow shocks, which can form wavy patterns like a boat does as it moves through the water," it said. "The crimson glow comes from the energetic hydrogen molecules that result from jets and shocks. This is evident in the second and third pillars from the top – the NIRCam image is practically pulsing with their activity. These young stars are estimated to be only a few hundred thousand years old," it added.

What do new images actually mean to scientists?

As per NASA, the scene was first imaged by Hubble in 1995 and revisited in 2014, but many other observatories have also stared deeply at this region. It said Webb’s new view of the Pillars of Creation will help researchers revamp their models of star formation by identifying far more precise counts of newly formed stars, along with the quantities of gas and dust in the region. "Over time, they will begin to build a clearer understanding of how stars form and burst out of these dusty clouds over millions of years," according to NASA.

Image: Instagram/@NASA