Hard to believe it’s been almost 25 years since the Hubble Space Telescope went up on Shuttle Mission 31. NASA is gearing up for the official April 24th anniversary and released a stunning new image of an old favorite: The Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula. Be prepared to wait if you click on that image, it’s linked to the huge NASA billboard version. This image at Bad Astronomy is a little easier to digest:
The pillars are these towers. The tops are pointing toward the onslaught of stellar radiation and are slowly being dissolved by the light. You can see small knots, clumps of material here and there; these are where stars are being formed and are being uncovered as the dust dissolves. You can see numerous finger-shaped blobs all over the region, too, being eroded by the same process. There’s also a near-infrared image, which detects light that can get through some of the otherwise-opaque dust, showing even more details, including baby stars.
Marvellous image. Like so many others too, We owe the Hubble Space telescope so very much, it has brought such wonders and joy and knowledge to all on this pale blue dot. Thanks DarkSyde.
And a tip o’ th’ hat to John, Drew, Mass, Bueno, Megan, Ray J, and Scooter, for fixing that scope up real good on STS-125. I had the pleasure of working with them on that mission, and there isn’t a better crew out there. And of course the unique Frank Cepollina and his gang for running all the repair missions. Without them, the Hubble would still just be the butt of jokes.
Is this a straight optical image, or false colour by element spectrum? I got the Big Damn Book of Hubble for Christmas, and it often mentions on some of the most spectacular images that the colours are the result of overlaying in different hues the light emissions of different elements in the nebula. It looks like it must be.