WEBVTT

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The luminous band of our Milky Way Galaxy
stretches across the night sky.

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It is a contrasting combination of
bright starlight and dark dust lanes.

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Stars along the pancake-like disk are
seen in short wavelength infrared light ...

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... while long wavelength infrared light
features the dense dust clouds.

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These dark dust clouds are places
where new stars can form.

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Newborn hot stars heat the dust clouds
and their cores glow brightly.

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The Eagle Nebula is the birthplace
of a cluster of luminous young stars.

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Infrared light can trace the
dusty skeleton of the nebula.

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And x-ray observations reveal
over a thousand stars in the central cluster.

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The largest stars in the cluster emit
strong stellar winds and energetic radiation ...

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... which stream across the nebula
and shape the iconic Pillars of Creation.

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Made famous by the Hubble Space Telescope
using visible light ...

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... the pillars are equally amazing in the
infrared view of the Webb Space Telescope.

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Examining their structure in three dimensions ...

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... they separate into individual clouds.

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The right pillar is closest and is
backlit by the stars’ intense radiation.

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Glowing ionized gas streams away from the pillars.

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The infrared view of the central pillar reveals
vibrant evidence of an embedded protostar.

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The top of the left pillar is directly
bombarded by energetic starlight.

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Dense pockets of dust resist the erosion
and create narrow, finger-like peaks.

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Lower down. jets from a newborn star
shoot away from a peak.

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The semi-transparent body of the pillar
lies in the shadow of the dense top.

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A newborn star blazes at the end of this peak,
underscoring the nickname “Pillars of Creation”.

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Stars form in these dusty pillars.

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The dusty pillars are shaped by
emissions from young stars.

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The young stars form within giant dust clouds.

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Dust clouds and stars are strewn
across the plane of our galaxy.

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The interplay of stars and dust creates
cosmic structures on many scales.