A personal view of Australian and International Politics : NASA published a 'haunting portrait' of Pillars of Creation for Halloween. Here's why it's a spookier version of its sparkly twin.

Tuesday, 1 November 2022

NASA published a 'haunting portrait' of Pillars of Creation for Halloween. Here's why it's a spookier version of its sparkly twin.

Extract from ABC News

Posted 20 hours ago

A side-by-side look at two highly detailed images of the Pillars of Creation from the James Webb Telescope. (Supplied: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Anton M Koekemoer (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI))

NASA has published a new image of the Pillars of Creation using the James Webb Telescope, taken using technology that highlights the "eerie" clouds of dust rather than the sparkling stars around it.

Earlier in the month, NASA published a recreation of the iconic Pillars of Creation image taken by the Hubble telescope back in 1995.

That image, taken using Webb's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), revealed dazzling detail of the stars surrounding the massive gas clouds.

An image of the Pillars of Creation, with orangey-brown dust clouds on a dark blue, starry background. — The NIRCam is sparkling with countless stars. (Supplied: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Anton M Koekemoer (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI))

The new image, taken using Webb's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), appears to be a darker, moodier twin of the bright and starry NIRCam version.

An image of the Pillars of Creation, which are ghostly giant trails of blue dust against an orangey-black background. — The MIRI version has a spooky, almost ghostly vibe. (Supplied: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI))

Both were created using observations from August.

NASA published its "haunting portrait" ahead of Halloween, pointing out the new version was "eerie" and "extremely dusty".

Here's a NASA statement explaining why the MIRI version has a such a "chilling, sombre mood":

"In MIRI's view, the majority of the stars appear missing. Why?
"Many newly formed stars are no longer surrounded by enough dust to be detected in mid-infrared light.
"Instead, MIRI observes young stars that have not yet cast off their dusty cloaks.
"These are the crimson orbs toward the fringes of the pillars.
"In contrast, the blue stars that dot the scene are ageing, which means they have shed most of their layers of gas and dust."

However, the region has always looked a little spooky, even in lower definition images.

Here's the first snap of the Pillars of Creation from 1995.

An image of the Pillars of Creation, showing reddish brown dust clouds on a greenish-black background. — The first image of the Pillars of Creation was one of Hubble's most iconic snaps. (Supplied: J Hester, P Scowen (ASU), HST, NASA)

NASA says the picture, taken by the Hubble telescope, became "one of the most famous images of modern times".

In 2014, Hubble's cameras were used to revisit the iconic shot, producing a sharper picture.

A detailed image of the Pillars of Creation, showing reddish purple dust clouds on a greenish-black background. — You can see more detail in this image compared to the 1995 shot. (Supplied: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI / AURA))

Now compare that to the shot from the Webb telescope.

What are the Pillars of Creation?

They're massive columns of hydrogen gas and cosmic dust so big that NASA measures them in light-years.

Light-time — think light-minutes, light-hours and light-years — is a way of measuring mind-bogglingly vast distances of space, with a light-year being the distance light travels in one year.

To put this into perspective, the Earth is eight light-minutes from the Sun, which converts into about 150 million kilometres.

Whereas NASA says the Pillars of Creation are about 4 to 5 light-years across.

That works out to be between roughly 37.6 and 47 trillion kilometres.

The Pillars of Creation are located in the middle of a cluster of stars called M16, better known as the Eagle Nebular.

They're about 6,500 light-years away from Earth.

YouTube NASA's close ups show newly-formed stars amongst the massive dust clouds.

Why are they called the Pillars of Creation?

Because thousands of new stars have formed in this region.

NASA says the columns of cool interstellar hydrogen gas and dust act as "incubators for new stars".

"Many stars are actively forming in these dense blue-gray pillars," a NASA statement said.

"When knots of gas and dust with sufficient mass form in these regions, they begin to collapse under their own gravitational attraction, slowly heat up – and eventually form new stars."