Webb Telescope Takes New Photos of 'Pillars of Creation' Where Stars Are Born: NASA

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) launched into orbit a million miles from earth earlier last year has taken new clearest-ever images of a so-called "pillars of creation" region of space where stars are believed to be born, NASA announced in a press release on Wednesday.

"NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured a lush, highly detailed landscape – the iconic Pillars of Creation – where new stars are forming within dense clouds of gas and dust," the release said. "The three-dimensional pillars look like majestic rock formations, but are far more permeable."

The columns, which were first imaged by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope in 1995, are composed of cool interstellar gas and dust that appear at times to be semi-transparent in near-infrared light, the US space agency said.

Webb’s new view will allow researchers to reconfigure star formation models by identifying far more precise counts of newly formed stars, along with the quantities of gas and dust in the region, the release added.

Over time, NASA analysts will begin to build a clearer understanding of how stars form and burst out of these dusty clouds over millions of years, the release said.