00:00 So what are the Pillars of Creation and how are they changing over time?
00:07 Huge columns of stellar dust and gas suspended in space about 7,000 light years from Earth.
00:16 They got their name the Pillars of Creation because new stars are formed there.
00:21 In 1995, the Hubble Space Telescope delivered this shot of the formation, one of its best-known images.
00:32 In it, the columns are enveloped in a yellowish haze of gaseous matter and space dust.
00:40 The young stars forming inside the Pillars release huge amounts of radiation, energy that causes the dust and gas to glow.
00:50 Different telescopes have set their sights on the vast dust clouds.
00:57 Images from the Spitzer Space Telescope show the columns in the infrared spectrum,
01:03 revealing the traces of a cosmic drama — a cloud of hot gas and dust.
01:09 It might have come from a star that exploded about 6,000 years ago.
01:17 In fact, the shock wave may have already destroyed the Pillars of Creation,
01:22 even though they can still be seen in Hubble images from 2015.
01:26 That's because light from them takes 7,000 years to reach us.
01:31 The infrared images allow us to see through the dense dust clouds.
01:36 In them, the columns are transparent silhouettes against a background filled with countless stars.
01:46 This line reveals the forces at play during star birth.
01:51 It probably originated in a gigantic stream of matter ejected from a solar system that's still in the early stages of development.
02:03 Astronomers continue to be fascinated by the Pillars of Creation.
02:08 No wonder, then, that they were an early target for the James Webb Space Telescope as well.
02:15 Its images have revealed more about the turbulent birth of new stars,
02:19 and make the Pillars of Creation shine in even more spectacular splendour.
Comments