James Webb telescope’s ghostly ‘Pillars of Creation’

web

Why satisfy yourself with one course when you can have a double helping?. The US space agency Nasa has issued a second image of the famous “Pillars of Creation” taken by the new super space telescope, James Webb. This week we get a rendering of the active star-forming region as seen by Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). Last week, it was the observatory’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) that was highlighting this remarkable location some 6,500 light-years from Earth. The pillars lie at the heart of what astronomers refer to as Messier 16 (M16), or the Eagle Nebula. They are the subject of intense study. Every great telescope is pointed in their direction to try to understand the physics and the chemistry in play as new stars are birthed in great clouds of gas and dust.(BBC)…[+]