The James Webb telescope has captured a never before seen perspective of dense hydrogen clouds 6,500 light years from Earth.
Known as the “Pillars of Creation,” the clouds located in the Serpens constellation are composed of hydrogen gas and dust.
While other super-telescopes have offered glimpses of the clouds, including the Hubble observatory in 1995 and 2014, the James Webb telescope’s capture of the formations is a novel look at a fascinating area of deep space, BBC News reported.
The clouds at at the center of the Eagle Nebula, a region full of forming stars.
The telescope used infrared detection to sneak a peak through the clouds’ dust in order to look at the newly blooming suns.
"I've been studying the Eagle Nebula since the mid-1990s, trying to see 'inside' the light-years long pillars that Hubble showed, searching for young stars inside them. I always knew that when James Webb took pictures of it, they would be stunning. And so they are," European Space Agency senior advisor Professor Mark McCaughrean told BBC News.
But astronomers note that the clouds likely no longer exist. What we are seeing is a glimpse far into the past. The light detected by the telescope took 6,500 years to travel from the Eagle Nebula to Webb’s mirrors where it was detected.