Galactic beauty: Iconic ‘Pillars of Creation’ photo gets an update

KD Suarez

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Galactic beauty: Iconic ‘Pillars of Creation’ photo gets an update
The iconic image of 3 gigantic, galactic gas clouds in the Eagle Nebula gets an updated, high-resolution version – and it's out-of-this-world beautiful

MANILA, Philippines – It’s one of the most iconic images ever taken in space, and nearly two decades later, it gets an updated version.

Hubble Space Telescope took new, high-definition images of the famous “Pillars of Creation” – first photographed in 1995 – now with a sharper and wider view, made public at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle, USA on Monday, January 5.

The galactic feature is a group of 3 giant gas columns in a part of the Eagle Nebula (M16), illuminated by ultraviolet light from a cluster of young, massive stars.

The new photo has both near-infrared and visible light images, with the infrared view “[transforming] the pillars into eerie, wispy silhouettes seen against a background of myriad stars.”

“We have caught these pillars at a very unique and short-lived moment in their evolution,” Paul Scowen of the Arizona State University in Tempe, who along with astronomer Jeff Hester led the original Hubble observations of the Eagle Nebula, said of the new photographs.

The 1995 version of the 'Pillars of Creation' image, taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Image courtesy NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team

Due to the massive distance between Earth and the nebula, the image is actually how the feature appeared around 7,000 years ago, the BBC noted.

Scientists working with the Hubble have noticed some slight differences between the 1995 and 2014 versions, like the lengthening of “narrow jet-like feature” they assume could be from a newly forming star.

“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,” NASA said.

Hubble has been photographing the visible Universe since April 1990, and can observe objects in the near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared spectra. – Rappler.com

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