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Just noticed the Pillars of Creation photo from 1995 vs 2022 comparison...
I was scrolling through NASA's website last night and it blew my mind how much sharper the Webb image is, you can actually see new stars forming where Hubble just showed fuzzy gas. Did anyone else get that weird feeling looking at them side by side?
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dylanward1mo agoMost Upvoted
That 2022 version makes the old Hubble one look like a kids drawing.
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finley_flores281mo ago
Knew a guy who worked on the Hubble team back in the 90s. Told me one time they got a new image of the Pillars of Creation and a junior tech just sat there staring at it for like twenty minutes before saying, "We are looking at a ghost." @dylanward is right, that Webb version makes the old one look like something you'd see in a high school science fair, complete with the duct tape.
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miles541mo ago
Oh man, here's something I haven't seen anyone mention. That 2022 Webb image actually shows the gas and dust in a way that makes the pillars look like they're actively falling apart. The Hubble version made them look so solid and permanent, like stone monuments. But Webb's infrared picks up all this hot plasma and shockwaves that reveal the pillars are basically being eaten alive by radiation from nearby stars. So in a weird way, Hubble showed us a beautiful snapshot of something we thought was ancient and stable, while Webb showed us the same thing dying in real time. Kind of like looking at a photo of someone from 1995 versus seeing them in person today all gray and tired.
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