Space Continues To Awe Us With Stunning New Image of a Famous Phenomenon

Every time that NASA posts something new, I think of that Jenny Slate clip from Drunk History when she’s screaming about black holes, and this new set of pictures of the iconic Pillars of Creation have me right there alongside her. Because oh my GOODNESS are they beautiful and space is wild and I can’t believe that somewhere out there these things just exist.

In a new post, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope gave us a close-up look at them. Described on the website as “new stars are forming within dense clouds of gas and dust,” hence the name, they look like solid rock formations despite … not being that, and it is amazing to know that in this great wide universe that we live in, something can be so breathtaking.

The Pillars have been public knowledge since 1995 and have attracted the attention of many fans of space, including Captain America star Chris Evans who tweeted his excitement about the new pictures from the James Webb Space Telescope.

Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera captured newly formed stars (which are those bright red orbs we can see), and it truly does look like something out of a fantasy book or a painting instead of something that is out there in our universe.

The allure of space

For me, it is about the search of the unknown. While we have so many beautiful moments in our own world, they somehow pale in comparison to what is out there. The Pillars of Creation look like something that we’d make up for a science fiction movie. If you told me this was something out of the Guardians of the Galaxy even, I’d believe you. But it really does exist out there in the galaxy! And unlike other photographs of phenomena out in space, which often show things that are actually invisible to the human eye, the Pillars of Creation actually look like this.

It makes you feel both small and determined to do whatever it takes to get out there and explore it all. And while these pictures could inspire you to go and search for it in the reaches of space, it is in the Eagle Nebula, which is 6,500 light-years away.

(featured image: Pixsooz)