PREVIEW

The Pillars of Creation are one of the most iconic and beautiful sights in deep space - and now NASA has released a 3D visualisation allowing us to really see inside the most stunning part of the Eagle Nebula.

Made famous in 1995 by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, the Pillars of Creation are giant clouds where stars are born.
Using data from NASA's Hubble and James Webb space telescopes, astronomers have created a comprehensive and detailed multiwavelength look at these towering celestial structures.
"By flying past and amongst the pillars, viewers experience their three-dimensional structure and see how they look different in the Hubble visible-light view versus the Webb infrared-light view," explained principal visualization scientist Frank Summers of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, who led the movie development team for NASA's Universe of Learning. "The contrast helps them understand why we have more than one space telescope to observe different aspects of the same object."
The four Pillars of Creation, made primarily of cool molecular hydrogen and dust, are being eroded by the fierce winds and punishing ultraviolet light of nearby hot, young stars. The finger-like structures protruding from the top of the pillars are so big they are larger than our solar system! Within these fingers are embryonic stars. The tallest pillar stretches across three light-years, three-quarters of the distance between our Sun and the next nearest star.
The movie takes visitors into the three-dimensional structures of the pillars. It is not an artistic interpretation but rather is based on observational data from a science paper led by Anna McLeod, an associate professor at the University of Durham in the U.K. McLeod also served as a scientific advisor on the movie project.
"The Pillars of Creation were always on our minds to create in 3D. Webb data in combination with Hubble data allowed us to see the Pillars in more complete detail," said production lead Greg Bacon of STScI. "Understanding the science and how to best represent it allowed our small, talented team to meet the challenge of visualising this iconic structure."
The new visualisation also shows how two of the world's most powerful space telescopes can work together to provide a more complex and holistic portrait of the pillars. Hubble sees objects that glow in visible light, at thousands of degrees. Webb's infrared vision, which is sensitive to cooler objects with temperatures of just hundreds of degrees, pierces through obscuring dust to see stars embedded in the pillars.
"When we combine observations from NASA’s space telescopes across different wavelengths of light, we broaden our understanding of the universe," said Mark Clampin, Astrophysics Division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The Pillars of Creation region continues to offer us new insights that hone our understanding of how stars form. Now, with this new visualisation, everyone can experience this rich, captivating landscape in a new way."
Produced for NASA by STScI with partners at Caltech/IPAC, and developed by the AstroViz Project of NASA's Universe of Learning, the 3D visualisation shows several stages of star formation are highlighted in the visualisation. As viewers approach the central pillar, they see at its top an embedded, infant protostar glimmering bright red in infrared light. Near the top of the left pillar is a diagonal jet of material ejected from a newborn star. Though the jet is evidence of star birth, viewers can't see the star itself. Finally, at the end of one of the left pillar's protruding "fingers" is a blazing, brand-new star.
A bonus product of the visualisation is a new 3D printable model of the Pillars of Creation - that users can print out themselves from a file available on NASA’s website.