The pillars of creation, renewed 20 years later
The Hubble Telescope has made thousands of images of the universe, but if one were to be chosen as a symbol, that image would be “The Pillars of Creation”: three gigantic interstellar gas columns in the eagle nebula, 6,500 light-years from Earth. Columns are the origin of the stars and hence their name.
The original image dates back to 1995 and now NASA has published a new image of greater resolution and extension of the Creation columns to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Hubble Telescope in 2015.
The new image also shows the lower part of the columns, as well as some smaller ones, which have been part of a wider area of the space: The total is 5 light years. The columns also appear more transparent, as in addition to the WFC3 visible light camera, they have used the UVIS camera of the near infrared to complete the image. Infrared radiation penetrates into gas and dust, except in the denser areas of columns, so columns look like this.
According to astronomer Paul Scowen of the University of Arizona, creator of the original image with Jeff Hester, the new image indicates that these eagle nebulae are not only creative, but also pillars of destruction: “The precariousness of these structures is surprising. They are being eliminated before our eyes. At the edges of the columns, in those bluish clouds in the form of ghosts, matter is warming and disappearing in space. We have trapped the pillars in a brief and discreet moment of their evolution,” he says. Scowen has not lost the emotion of 20 years ago when talking about the columns and it is not for less, seeing its renewed beauty.
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