Starlight is literally crushing gas clouds into brand new stars inside the Pillars of Creation.
March 24, 2026
Original Paper
Radiative Compression of Dense Cores in the Pillars of Creation as Revealed by JWST Extinction Mapping
arXiv · 2603.20760
The Takeaway
Using JWST, astronomers found that the intense radiation from nearby giant stars is physically compressing the gas in the famous 'Pillars.' Rather than just blowing the clouds away, this pressure is forcing the gas to collapse into dense cores, accelerating the birth of a new generation of baby stars.
From the abstract
The Pillars of Creation in M16 represent an iconic star-forming region where stellar feedback shapes molecular cloud evolution. We present a detailed investigation of dust extinction and density structure in the Pillars of Creation using multiband photometric observations from \emph{JWST} NIRCam. A high-resolution (2\arcsec) extinction map reaching depths of $A_V\sim 100$ mag has been constructed using NIRCam filters F090W, F200W, F335M, and F444W. This map clearly reveals the intricate structur