NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has taken a bigger and sharper photograph of the iconic Eagle Nebula's "Pillars of Creation," shown at right. The original 1995 Hubble image of the gaseous towers, taken with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2, is shown at left.
Astronomers combined several Hubble exposures to assemble a wider view of the pillars, which stretch about 5 light-years high in the new image. The dark, finger-like feature at bottom right may be a smaller version of the giant pillars. The image was taken with Hubble's versatile and sharp-eyed Wide Field Camera 3.
The pillars are bathed in the blistering ultraviolet light from a grouping of young, massive stars located off the top of the image. Streamers of gas can be seen bleeding off pillars as the intense radiation heats and evaporates it into space. Denser regions of the pillars are shadowing material beneath them from the powerful radiation. Stars are being born deep inside the pillars, which are made of cold hydrogen gas laced with dust. The pillars are part of a small region of the Eagle Nebula, a vast star-forming region 6,500 light-years from Earth.
In the new image at right, oxygen emission is blue, sulfur is orange, and hydrogen and nitrogen are green.
Credits
WFPC2 image: NASA, ESA, STScI, and J. Hester and P. Scowen (Arizona State University);WFC3 image: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | M16, Eagle Nebula, NGC 6611 |
| Object Description | Emission Nebula |
| R.A. Position | 18h 18m 48.17s |
| Dec. Position | -13° 48' 26.03" |
| Constellation | Serpens |
| Distance | 6,500 light-years (2,000 parsecs) |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | Data of M16 were obtained from the HST proposal , P.I. Z. Levay, J. Mack, C. Christian, L. Frattare, M. Livio, S. Meyett, M. Mutchler, and J. Sokol (STScI/AURA), and K. Noll (NASA/GSFC). |
| Instrument | HST>WFPC2 (left) and HST>WFC3/UVIS (right) |
| Exposure Dates | April 1, 1995 (left) and September 2014 (right) |
| Filters | Right Image: F502N ([O III]), F657N (H-alpha + [N II]), and F673N ([S II]) |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | Right Image: This image is a composites of separate exposures acquired by the WFC3 instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. Several filters were used to sample broad and narrow wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are: Blue: F502N ([O III]) Green: F657N (Hα + [N II]) Red: F673N ([S II]) |
| Compass Image |  |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
