Hubble: Pillars of Creation are also Pillars of Destruction   
       
   Jan. 7, 2015:   Although NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has taken many   
   breathtaking images of the universe, one snapshot stands out from the rest:   
   the iconic view of the so-called "Pillars of Creation." The jaw-dropping   
   photo, taken in 1995, revealed never-before-seen details of three giant   
   columns of cold gas bathed in the scorching ultraviolet light from a cluster   
   of young, massive stars in a small region of the Eagle Nebula, or M16.   
       
   In celebration of its upcoming 25th anniversary in April, Hubble has revisited   
   the famous pillars, providing astronomers with a sharper and wider view.    
   Although the original image was dubbed the Pillars of Creation, the new image   
   hints that they are also "pillars of destruction."   
       
   http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/p1501ay.jpg   
       
   Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have assembled a bigger and   
   sharper photograph of the iconic Eagle Nebula's "Pillars of Creation". Credit:   
   NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)/J. Hester, P. Scowen (Arizona State   
   U.)   
       
   "I'm impressed by how transitory these structures are," explains Paul Scowen   
   of Arizona State University in Tempe. "They are actively being ablated away   
   before our very eyes. The ghostly bluish haze around the dense edges of the   
   pillars is material getting heated up and evaporating away into space. We have   
   caught these pillars at a very unique and short-lived moment in their   
   evolution." Scowen and astronomer Jeff Hester, formerly of Arizona State   
   University, led the original Hubble observations of the Eagle Nebula.   
       
   The original 1995 images were taken in visible light.  The new image includes   
   near-infrared light as well. The infrared view transforms the pillars into   
   eerie, wispy silhouettes seen against a background of myriad stars. That's   
   because the infrared light penetrates much of the gas and dust, except for the   
   densest regions of the pillars. Newborn stars can be seen hidden away inside   
   the pillars.   
       
   The infrared image shows that the very ends of the pillars are dense knots of   
   dust and gas. They shadow the gas below them, keeping the gas cool and   
   creating the long, column-like structures. The material in between the pillars   
   has long since been evaporated away by the ionizing radiation from the central   
   star cluster located above the pillars.   
       
   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. "These pillars represent a very dynamic, active   
   process," Scowen said. "The gas is not being passively heated up and gently   
   wafting away into space. The gaseous pillars are actually getting ionized, a   
   process by which electrons are stripped off of atoms, and heated up by   
   radiation from the massive stars. And then they are being eroded by the stars'   
   strong winds and barrage of charged particles, which are literally   
   sandblasting away the tops of these pillars."   
       
   When Scowen and Hester used Hubble to make the initial observations of the   
   Eagle Nebula in 1995, astronomers had seen the pillar-like structures in   
   ground-based images, but not in detail. They knew that the physical processes   
   are not unique to the Eagle Nebula because star birth takes place across the   
   universe. But at a distance of just 6,500 light-years, M16 is the most   
   dramatic nearby example - as the team soon realized.   
       
   [Same as JPG above]   
       
   The original 1995 image was beautiful. Compare this view to the 2014 image in   
   a side-by-side montage   
       
   As Scowen was piecing together the Hubble exposures of the Eagle, he was   
   amazed at what he saw. "I called Jeff Hester on his phone and said, `You need   
   to get here now,'" Scowen recalled. "We laid the pictures out on the table,   
   and we were just gushing because of all the incredible detail that we were   
   seeing for the very first time."   
       
   The first features that jumped out at the team in 1995 were the streamers of   
   gas seemingly floating away from the columns. Astronomers had previously   
   debated what effect nearby massive stars would have on the surrounding gas in   
   stellar nurseries. "There is the only one thing that can light up a   
   neighborhood like this: massive stars kicking out enough horsepower in   
   ultraviolet light to ionize the gas clouds and make them glow," Scowen said.   
   "Nebulous star-forming regions like M16 are the interstellar neon signs that   
   say, `We just made a bunch of massive stars here.' This was the first time we   
   had directly seen observational evidence that the erosionary process, not only   
   the radiation but the mechanical stripping away of the gas from the columns,   
   was actually being seen."   
       
   By comparing the 1995 and 2014 pictures, astronomers also noticed a   
   lengthening of a narrow jet-like feature that may have been ejected from a   
   newly forming star. The jet looks like a stream of water from a garden hose.   
   Over the intervening 19 years, this jet has stretched farther into space,   
   across an additional 60 billion miles, at an estimated speed of about 450,000   
   miles per hour.   
       
   Our sun probably formed in a similar turbulent star-forming region. There is   
   evidence that the forming solar system was seasoned with radioactive shrapnel   
   from a nearby supernova. That means that our sun was formed as part of a   
   cluster that included stars massive enough to produce powerful ionizing   
   radiation, such as is seen in the Eagle Nebula. "That's the only way the   
   nebula from which the sun was born could have been exposed to a supernova that   
   quickly, in the short period of time that represents, because supernovae only   
   come from massive stars, and those stars only live a few tens of millions of   
   years," Scowen explained. "What that means is when you look at the environment   
   of the Eagle Nebula or other star-forming regions, you're looking at exactly   
   the kind of nascent environment that our sun formed in."   
       
   Credits:   
   Production editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA   
       
   More information:   
       
   The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between   
   NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in   
   Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science   
   Institute (STScI) in Baltimore conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is   
   operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in   
   Astronomy, Inc., in Washington.   
       
   NASA is exploring our solar system and beyond to understand the universe and   
   our place in it. We seek to unravel the secrets of our universe, its origins   
   and evolution, and search for life among the stars. Today's announcement   
   shares the discovery of our ever-changing cosmos, and brings us closer to   
   learning whether we are alone in the universe.   
       
       
   Regards,   
       
   Roger   
      
   --- D'Bridge 3.99   
    * Origin: NCS BBS - Houma, LoUiSiAna (1:3828/7)