but are far more permeable. These columns are made up of cool interstellar gas and dust that appear – at times – semi-transparent in near-infrared light

The iconic Pillars of Creation, where new stars are forming beneath dense clouds of gas and dust, have been imaged by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope as a rich, extremely realistic environment. Although they are far more porous, the three-dimensional pillars resemble beautiful rock formations. The chilly interstellar gas and dust that make up these columns may seem semi-transparent in near-infrared light. By identifying much more accurate counts of newly formed stars as well as the quantities of gas and dust in the region, Webb's new view of the Pillars of Creation, which NASA's Hubble Space Telescope first made famous when it imaged them in 1995, will aid researchers in revising their models of star formation. They will gradually get a better grasp of how stars grow in these dusty clouds over millions of years and then explode out of them.