Joel J Miller

ALT A side-by-side comparison of the Pillars of Creation as seen by our Hubble Space Telescope (left) vs. our James Webb Space Telescope (right). The background of the Hubble image is like a sunrise, beginning in yellow at the bottom, before transitioning to light green and deeper blue at the top. Thick dust all around the pillars obscures the stars in the overall region and causes the pillars to appear dark. In contrast, the background light in Webb's image appears in blue and reveals an abundance of stars spread across the scene. The dusty pillars appear rust-colored and less opaque, showing stars that have recently\u2014or are about to\u2014burst free. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Hubble Heritage Project; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Anton Koekemoer (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI)