Eagle Nebula Multi-Wavelength View [720p]

The European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory has made observations at far infrared wavelengths toward one of the most iconic images in astronomy: the "Pillars of Creation". The region around the Pillars in the stunning Hubble Space Telescope image of these three towering pillars of gas and dust, originally taken in 1995, has now been re-observed with Herschel. This region in fact is only a small part of the Eagle Nebula, a star formation region which lies 6500 light years away. The new Herschel observations highlight the processes occurring within the pillars, and the locations of stars that are forming throughout the surrounding area.

The three pillars, made of gas and dust, are each several light-years in length and are at the center of an incredibly complex region 30-40 light-years across. The pillars are the remnants of a much larger cloud which has been eroded away by a cluster of hot, young stars near the tips of the pillars. The densest pockets of gas and dust, called "evaporating gaseous globules" (or EGGs), resist the erosion, creating the beautiful structures seen here. The EGGs are highlighted

The EGGs are thought to contain very young stars, but views of the region in visible light can only tell astronomers so much. Cold dust, made up of small grains of carbon and silicates blocks out the light from stars within or beyond the pillars, with the only illumination coming from the outer layers of gas that are energised by the intense light from nearby stars. The Herschel Space Observatory, meanwhile, sees far-infrared light, with wavelengths thousands of times longer than visible light. Rather than seeing the pillars as dark silhouettes, Herschel sees the clouds of dust glowing in their own light.

credit: (far-infrared: ESA/Herschel/PACS/SPIRE/Hill, Motte, HOBYS Key Programme Consortium; ESA/XMM-Newton/EPIC/XMM-Newton-SOC/Boulanger); (optical: MPG/ESO); (near-infrared/VLT/ISAAC/McCaughrean & Andersen/AIP/ESO)

source: http://herschel.cf.ac.uk/results/eagle-nebula

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Eagle Nebula
• nebula
• stars
• star formation
• Herschel Observatory
• XMM-Newton
• ESO
• EGG
• Pillars Of Creation

[toocoolforu]

This is amazing, finally seen the image of a greek man in space should be a major discovery! *we are not alone*

[yourmaker74]

actually kind of scary lol

[8bars]

I read that the far left finger is about 4 light years in length ..... that would be moving at around 186,000 miles per SECOND !!!!! ... and it would take 4 years to go from top to bottom !!!!!!

The human mind can't fathom those statistics ......

[avalanchesuperstar]

1:18 heaven?

[TheLimitless35]

I want this as a wallpaper

[JoeFatherBr]

We are, we humans, only a microscopic particle that galactic immensity that embraces us ...

Congratulations on your release!

Hugs renovated!

[lolpranksta]

It looks like two eagles fighting

[MrBigASSbee]

Yes just amazing ! :D and we are part of it !

[salgadoxilinx]

'starts with a bang' brought me here :)

[NICfromOKI]

OMG AMAZING!