Pillars of Creation

In 1995, the Hubble Space Telescope released images of the Pillars of Creation — stunning effervescent clouds of interstellar dust and gas, the place where stars are born.


Now, combining data from Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA has released a gorgeous 3D visualization of the cosmic structures in both visible and infrared light.


"By flying past and amongst the pillars, viewers experience their three-dimensional structure and see how they look different in the Hubble visible-light view versus the Webb infrared-light view," principal visualization scientist Frank Summers said in a statement.

"The contrast helps them understand why we have more than one space telescope to observe different aspects of the same object," he continue

The Pillars of Creation, which lie about 5,700 light-years from Earth, are composed of cool molecular hydrogen and dust. Due to strong winds and radiation from young nearby hot stars, the pillars are starting to get stripped of their contents. Long, finger-like structures can be seen emerging from the top of the pillars, which are larger than our own solar system.


Inside these structures, hydrogen and dust is gravitationally collapsing into new, infant stars. These new stars will add to the continued dispersion of materials within the pillars. The tallest of the pillars spans 3 light-years from top to bottom — three-quarters of the distance between the sun and our closest star.         READ MORE...

Pillars of Creation

Photographer Andrew McCarthy recreated NASA’s famous “Pillars of Creation” photograph of the Eagle Nebula using a $500 telescope.

The original iconic image, taken by the Hubble telescope, shows an active star-forming region featuring towering tendrils of cosmic dust and gas in the heart of the Eagle Nebula, cataloged as M16.

It was first photographed in 1995 by NASA and has had a huge cultural impact with the image being featured on everything from “t-shirts to coffee mugs,” reports National Geographic.

A $16B Space Telescope vs a $500 backyard telescope
McCarthy spoke to PetaPixel about how he recreated the Pillars of Creation from his backyard in Arizona with a 12-inch Newtonian telescope and a monochrome camera using narrowband filters to create a vibrant color image.

“I shoot the Pillars of Creation a couple times a year. It’s a surprisingly accessible target, near the Sagittarius star cloud in the core of the Milky Way,” explains McCarthy.

“I used special software to remove all the stars in the image, so this unobstructed view really shows off the vast structures of gas and dust within the Eagle Nebula.

“The image was shot over several hours across multiple nights, while my telescope was guided along the stars using a sophisticated tracking mount that compensated for the earth’s rotation.”  READ MORE...