Space photos

Space photos: M16: Pillars of Star Creation

These dark pillars may look destructive, but they are creating stars. This pillar-capturing image of the inside of the Eagle Nebula, taken with the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995, shows evaporating gaseous globules (EGGs) emerging from pillars of molecular hydrogen gas and dust. The giant pillars are light years in length and are so dense that interior gas contracts gravitationally to form stars.

Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Space Telescope, J. Hester, P. Scowen (ASU).

At each pillars’ end, the intense radiation of bright young stars causes low density material to boil away, leaving stellar nurseries of dense EGGs exposed. The Eagle Nebula, associated with the open star cluster M16, lies about 7000 light years away. The pillars of creation have been imaged more recently in infrared light by Hubble, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, and ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory — showing new detail.

Awakening Newborn Stars

Lying inside our home galaxy, the Milky Way, this Herbig–Haro object is a turbulent birthing ground for new stars in a region known as the Orion B molecular cloud complex, located 1,350 light-years away.

Credit: NASA, Hubble Space Telescope.

Jupiter’s Storms by Hubble

Taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope on Aug. 25, 2020, Jupiter was captured when the planet was 406 million miles from Earth. Hubble’s sharp view is giving researchers an updated weather report on the planet’s turbulent atmosphere, including a remarkable new storm brewing, and a cousin of the famous Great Red Spot region gearing up to change color – again.

Credits: NASA, ESA, STScI, A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center), M.H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley), and the OPAL team.

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