Cosmic Art #6: The Pillars of Creation

Pillars of Creation within Messier 16

Week 6 of my weekly post that I'm calling Cosmic Art. Our amazing universe has fascinated me since I was a child. I have been fortunate enough to have worked at NASA for almost a decade and have witnessed first hand the incredible achievements we as humans can accomplish. These posts are dedicated to the men and women who made these stunning images possible.

Located in the constellation Serpens, the Eagle Nebula, also known as NGC 6611 and Messier 16, is a young open cluster of stars discovered by Jean-Philippe de Chéseaux in 1745–46 and is approximately 7000 light years away from Earth. The Pillars of Creation within the nebula are one of Hubbles Space Telescope's most popular and iconic images taken thus far.

This inspiring image shows the pillars as seen in visible light, capturing the multi-coloured glow of gas clouds, wispy tendrils of dark cosmic dust, and the rust-coloured elephants’ trunks of the nebula’s famous pillars. The dust and gas in the pillars is seared by the intense radiation from young stars and eroded by strong winds from massive stars nearby.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA/Hubble and the Hubble Heritage Team
Content Source: spacetelescope.org