Eagle Nebula’s Pillars of Creation Like You’ve Never Seen Before

Eagle Nebula’s Pillars of Creation in Infrared. Credit: NASA, ESA/Hubble and the Hubble Heritage Team

Human eyes can see only a small portion of the range of radiation given off by the objects around us. We call this wide array of radiation the electromagnetic spectrum, and the part we can see visible light.

In this Hubble Space Telescope image, researchers revisited one of Hubble’s most iconic and popular images: the Eagle Nebula’s Pillars of Creation.

Here, the pillars are seen in infrared light, which pierces through obscuring dust and gas and unveils a more unfamiliar — but just as amazing — view of the pillars. The better-known image is of the pillars in visible light:

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has revisited one of its most iconic and popular images: the Eagle Nebula’s Pillars of Creation. This image shows the pillars as seen in visible light, capturing the multi-colored glow of gas clouds, wispy tendrils of dark cosmic dust, and the rust-colored 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 nearby stars. With these new images comes better contrast and a clearer view for astronomers to study how the structure of the pillars is changing over time.
Credit: NASA, ESA/Hubble and the Hubble Heritage Team

In this ethereal view the entire frame is peppered with bright stars and baby stars are revealed being formed within the pillars themselves. The ghostly outlines of the pillars seem much more delicate, and are silhouetted against an eerie blue haze.