Mountains of Creation in Visible and Infrared

  • Released Monday, September 17, 2018
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The infrared view of the "Mountains of Creation" reveals columns of dust sculpted by the light of young stars.

The visible glow of hot gas in this star-forming region only highlights the areas where stars have been born and emerged from their dust clouds. The infrared view lets us see columns of dust sculpted by the light of the young stars, which themselves contain embedded clusters of baby stars that are about to be born.

Optical: Bright, young stars light up the gas.

Infrared: Clusters of forming stars can be seen in the tips of massive dust pillars.

This animation is the same as above, played twice as fast.

Digital Sky Survey optical image of Mountains of CreationBright, young stars light up the gas.

Digital Sky Survey optical image of Mountains of Creation

Bright, young stars light up the gas.

Spitzer Infrared image of Mountains of Creation Clusters of forming stars can be seen in the tips of massive dust pillars.

Spitzer Infrared image of Mountains of Creation

Clusters of forming stars can be seen in the tips of massive dust pillars.

Credits

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NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

This page was originally published on Monday, September 17, 2018.
This page was last updated on Sunday, March 9, 2025 at 11:49 PM EDT.

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