| NASA Center: |
Hubble Space Telescope Center |
|---|
| Image # : |
PR95-44D |
|---|
| Date : |
4/1/1995
|
|---|
|
Title
Stellar
Full Description
This eerie, dark structure, resembling an imaginary sea serpent's
head, is a column of cool molecular hydrogen gas (two atoms of
hydrogen in each molecule) and dust that is an incubator for new
stars. The stars are embedded inside finger-like protrusions extending
from the top of the nebula.
Each "fingertip" is somewhat larger than our own solar system.
The pillar is slowly eroding away by the ultraviolet light from nearby
hot stars, a process called "photoevaporation."
As it does, small globules of especially dense gas buried within the
cloud is uncovered. These globules have been dubbed "EGGs" -- an
acronym for "Evaporating Gaseous Globules." The shadows of the EGGs
protect gas behind them, resulting in the finger-like structures at
the top of the cloud.
Forming inside at least some of the EGGs are embryonic stars -- stars
that abruptly stop growing when the EGGs are uncovered and they are
separated from the larger reservoir of gas from which they were
drawing mass. Eventually the stars emerge, as the EGGs themselves
succumb to photoevaporation.
The stellar EGGS are found, appropriately enough, in the "Eagle
Nebula" (also called M16 -- the 16th object in Charles Messier's 18th
century catalog of "fuzzy" permanent objects in the sky), a nearby
star-forming region 7,000 light-years away in the constellation
Serpens.
The picture was taken on April 1, 1995 with the Hubble Space Telescope
Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. The color image is constructed from
three separate images taken in the light of emission from different
types of atoms. Red shows emission from singly-ionized sulfur atoms.
Green shows emission from hydrogen. Blue shows light emitted by
doubly-ionized oxygen atoms.
Keywords
Hubble Space Telescope HST Nebula Evaporating Gaseous Globules EGG M16 Constellation Serpens Wide Field Planetary Camera WFPC Fingers Pillars of Creation
Subject Category
Deep Space Studies, Hubble,
Reference Numbers
- Center:
HSTI
- Center Number:
PR95-44D
- GRIN DataBase Number:
GPN-2000-001947
Source Information
| Resolution | Format | Width
(Pixels) | Height
(Pixels) | Size
(KBytes) |
Thumbnail |
.jpg |
69 |
68 |
11 |
Small |
.jpg |
492 |
481 |
334 |
Medium |
.jpg |
1154 |
1127 |
1,763 |
Large |
.jpg |
769 |
751 |
965 |
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Updated October 31, 2002
• History Questions: NASA History Office
• Responsible NASA Official: Steve Garber
• Author: Michael Hahn. Editor: Dwayne A. Day
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