Hubble returns to image the famously beautiful Eagle Nebula

The gorgeous Eagle Nebula is one of the most iconic objects in the cosmos, known affectionately as the Pillars of Creation. One of the most famous images ever taken by the Hubble Space Telescope depicts the Pillars, and now Hubble has returned to image the nebula once again to celebrate its 35th anniversary.

The full image, shown below, depicts a striking structure of dust and gas which forms one small section of the Eagle Nebula. At 9.5 light-years tall, it is enormous, and is formed of cold hydrogen gas with new stars being born amongst the clouds of the nebula.

“The heart of the nebula, which is located beyond the edge of this image, is home to a cluster of young stars,” Hubble scientists explain. “These stars have excavated an immense cavity in the center of the nebula, shaping otherworldly pillars and globules of dusty gas. This particular feature extends like a pointing finger toward the center of the nebula and the rich young star cluster embedded there.”

It is the formation of these young stars which creates the sculpted appearance of the nebula. When stars are young, they are hot and bright, giving off large amounts of radiation and sending out particles in an effect called stellar wind. These stellar winds carve elaborate shapes into the clouds of dust and gas nearby, creating the otherworldly shapes. Some gas becomes ionized by the radiation from these stars, causing it to glow brightly. But where the dust is thickly clumped, it becomes opaque, creating the dark structure seen in the image.

The different colors in the image represent different elements that are present in the nebula. The blue shades in the background come from ionized oxygen, while the red colors at the bottom of the image are from hydrogen. However, the dark structure seen here won’t last forever, as radiation from bright young stars will eventually erode the pillar away.