Hubble image archive
A Near-Infrared View of the Pillars of Creation
This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image, taken in near-infrared light, transforms the pillars into eerie, wispy silhouettes, which are seen against a background of myriad stars.The near-infrared light can penetrate much of the gas and dust, revealing stars behind the nebula as wel...
- Date
- Jan 1, 2015
- Mission
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Archive ID
- hubblesite-images-2015-01-3475-image
This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image, taken in near-infrared light, transforms the pillars into eerie, wispy silhouettes, which are seen against a background of myriad stars.
The near-infrared light can penetrate much of the gas and dust, revealing stars behind the nebula as well as hidden away inside the pillars. Some of the gas and dust clouds are so dense that even the near-infrared light cannot penetrate them. New stars embedded in the tops of the pillars, however, are apparent as bright sources that are unseen in the visible image.
The ghostly bluish haze around the dense edges of the pillars is material getting heated up by the intense ultraviolet radiation from a cluster of young, massive stars and evaporating away into space. The stellar grouping is above the pillars and cannot be seen in the image. At the top edge of the left-hand pillar, a gaseous fragment has been heated up and is flying away from the structure, underscoring the violent nature of star-forming regions.
Astronomers used filters that isolate the light from newly formed stars, which are invisible in the visible-light image. At these wavelengths, astronomers are seeing through the pillars and even through the back wall of the nebula cavity and can see the next generations of stars just as they're starting to emerge from their formative nursery.
Credits
NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)Image Details
| 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>WFC3/IR |
| Exposure Dates | September 2014, Exposure Time: 22.4 hours |
| Filters | F110W (YJ) and F160W (H) |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | These images are 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: F110W (YJ) Yellow: F160W (H) |
More Images From This Period
Downloads
Source
Image and source material are credited to the official mission archive linked below.
View on NASA.gov