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It looks like a patch of sky after a thunder storm, with the sunlight filtering through the clouds, but this is what the Herschel space telescope sees when it observes one of the most celebrated nebular regions in the night sky, the "Pillars of Creation".
This is the glorified name given to dusty filamentary structures in the Eagle nebula (M16, in Serpens), at the end of which there are dense concentrations of gas where new stars are being formed. The whole nebula is dominated by a young open cluster, rich in massive stars, the ultraviolet radiation from which shapes the nebulosity.
The Pillars of Creation were made famous in 1995, when the Hubble Space Telescope obtained a breathtaking image of the region. The new image, taken at infrared wavelengths, shows principally the distribution of the dust in the nebula, heated by the stars, rather than the ionised gas to which Hubble was sensitive. 'Heated' should not be confused with 'hot' in this context; the red colours in the image correspond to temperatures of around 10 Kelvin, with blue for 40 Kelvin!
This new image will help understand how the gas and dust interact to shape the nebula and lead to the birth of new stars.
According to some researchers, the Pillars of Creation don't actually exist any more, having been swept away by a supernova explosion 6000 years ago. However, as they are 6500 light years away, we observe the scene before the supernova event. In 500 years we'll know whether or its true!
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by Michele Ferrara & Marcel
Clemens |
credit: ESA/Herschel/PACS/SPIRE/Hill, Motte,
HOBYS Key Programme Consortium |
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