There are so many places in the infinite space and time of the universe that we’ll never get to explore firsthand, mostly due to the limitations of our feeble human bodies.
Luckily, our minds have no such limitations, and at NASA, the 3D visualizations of what’s out there are pretty incredible on their own.
The Pillars of Creation are finger-like gas clouds that are light-years-long. Though they are part of the Eagle Nebula, which is 6,500 light-years away, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has used its infrared capabilities to witness stars being born inside of them.
Frank Summers, principal visualization scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) gives us a glimpse into what they brought to life.
“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. The contrast helps them understand why we have more than one space telescope to observe different aspects of the same object.”
The telescopes work to get these images because as intense ultraviolet starlight is dispersing the gas and the dust from the clouds inside the Pillars, the telescopes catch the beams.
Mark Clampin, the director of NASA’s astrophysics division, explains more.
“When we combine observations from NASA’s space telescopes across different wavelengths of light, we broaden our understanding of the universe. The Pillars of Creation region continues to offer us new insights that hone our understanding of how stars form. Now, with this new visualization, everyone can experience this rich, captivating landscape in a new way.”
To build the 3D visualization, NASA made a 3D printable model of the Pillars of Creation , which is now available to buy.
It’s pretty cool to wander through something so far away you’ll never get the chance to see it up close.
Or at least, you probably won’t.
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