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Iconic #39;Pillars of Creation #39; in space Hubble Telescope
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Iconic 'Pillars of Creation' in space Hubble Telescope - Video

By Brian Mastroianni

A bigger and sharper Hubble telescope photograph of the iconic Eagle Nebula's 'Pillars of Creation' (R) is seen next to the original 1995 Hubble picture in this NASA image released January 6, 2015.(REUTERS/NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team/Handout via Reuters)

A Hubble telescope photograph of the iconic Eagle Nebula 'Pillars of Creation' is seen in this NASA image released January 6, 2015.(REUTERS/NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team/Handout via Reuters)

In 1995, NASAs Hubble Space Telescope released an iconic image that changed peoples perception of space. Through the photo of the so-called Pillars of Creation, the telescope offered a glimpse at what the origins of our own solar systems sun might have looked like.

Showing three columns of gas highlighted by the ultraviolet light emitted from a nearby star cluster in M16, a region of the Eagle Nebula in the constellation Serpens, the image has inspired everyone from those behind the recent Star Trek films to children who aspire to study astronomy.

In honor of the telescopes upcoming 25th anniversary in April, NASA has provided a clearer view of the celestial phenomenon, with new high-definition images of the pillars that are being unveiled at this weeks American Astronomical Society meeting.

What is it that gives the image such power? For Ray Villard, news director at the Space Telescope Science Institute, the photograph gave people a look at the universe as something that was organic and not a dark void.

It looks almost like a fantasy landscape theres a feel to it that convinces yourself that you are looking at something that is living under a microscope, Villard told FoxNews.com. It defies expectations of whats out there in space.

Villard, who first became interested in astronomy when he caught a glimpse of an image of a similar celestial site the Horsehead Nebula as a young child, said that these kinds of images, made possible by the wide reach of Hubble, are inspirational and resonate way beyond hardcore science. In short, these glimpses at the far reaches of space are accessible in that they make astronomy tangible for the science lay person.

The image of the pillars sheds light on the constantly shifting face of the universe. The gaseous bodies suggest creation but also destruction, according to a release from NASA.

Original post:
NASA honors Hubble's 25th anniversary with high-def version of iconic image

SEATTLE A famous deep-space object imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope 20 years ago has been reborn in an amazing new photo.

Scientists pointed the telescope at the iconic Eagle Nebula, also known as Messier 16 (M16), capturing the famous "Pillars of Creation" in sharper and wider view. The new and improved image was possible thanks to upgrades made to the Hubble Space Telescope over the past 25 years. You can see the new Pillars of Creation image in detail in a breathtaking new video of the Hubble views as well.

"It allows us to demonstrate how far Hubble has come in 25 years of observation," Paul Scowen, of Arizona State University, said during a news conference here at the 225th meeting of the American Astronomical Society Monday (Jan. 5). Scowen was one of the astronomers who helped take the original iconic image. [See more amazing images from Hubble]

"It really is quite remarkable," he added.

Dubbed the "Pillars of Creation" when it was discovered in 1995, the Eagle Nebula view is arguably the most famous of all of Hubble's images. It has appeared on postage stamps, T-shirts and pillows, and even made the rounds in television shows and movies. Located approximately 7,000 light-years from the sun, M16 is a region of gas and dust where stars form at a rapid clip.

The new Hubble image utilizes the Wide Field Camera 3, installed in 2009, to reveal the star-forming region at twice the resolution of the original instrument. As with the original image, taken by the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, elements in the image appear as different colors: Red reveals singly ionized sulfur, blue shows double-ionized oxygen and green highlights hydrogen.

Along with releasing the sharper new photo, the Hubble team revealed an image of the Eagle Nebula in the infrared wavelength, which cuts through the dust and gas to reveal significantly more stars.

"The pillars themselves become quite transparent in the infrared," Scowen said.

The infrared image reveals that the pillars still exist after two decades because their dense heads shadow the gas beneath them. The massive young stars at their hearts are violent places, with rapid stellar winds blowing away the lighter material. Gas between the columns evaporated long ago due to the heat from bright young stars.

The new images also show changes that have taken place in the nebula over the past two decades. Several protostar systems create long jets that Scowen described as "signposts pointing back to 'We just made a star right here.'" Some of these squiggly jets, which cut through the dust and gas, have moved over in the time since the original image was taken.

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Hubble Telescope Captures Spectacular New Views of 'Pillars of Creation'

A striking photo taken by the Hubble Space Telescope shows the "Pillars of Creation" more than two decades after the cosmic columns of gas were first photographed by NASA's orbiting telescope.

The new high-definition photo is wider and shows the silhouettes of the pillars as they are surrounded by stars.

Located nearly 7,000 light years away in the distant M16 part of the Eagle Nebula, the new image is even more breathtaking than the one captured by Hubble in 1995.

The first photo of the "Pillars of Creation" showed stunning detail of three columns of gas and stars of the Eagle Nebula and captivated those on Earth so much that it appeared everywhere from movies and television shows to a postage stamp.

NASA/ESA

PHOTO: A comparison of the "Pillars of Creation" in 1995 and 2014.

Paul Scowen, one of the co-leaders of the original Hubble observations of the Eagle Nebula, said the most recent image of the pillars was taken "at a very unique and short-lived moment in their evolution."

"The ghostly bluish haze around the dense edges of the pillars is material getting heated up and evaporating away into space," he said.

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Hubble Telescope Captures Majestic Photo

By Brian Mastroianni

A bigger and sharper Hubble telescope photograph of the iconic Eagle Nebula's 'Pillars of Creation' (R) is seen next to the original 1995 Hubble picture in this NASA image released January 6, 2015.(REUTERS/NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team/Handout via Reuters)

A Hubble telescope photograph of the iconic Eagle Nebula 'Pillars of Creation' is seen in this NASA image released January 6, 2015.(REUTERS/NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team/Handout via Reuters)

In 1995, NASAs Hubble Space Telescope released an iconic image that changed peoples perception of space. Through the photo of the so-called Pillars of Creation, the telescope offered a glimpse at what the origins of our own solar systems sun might have looked like.

Showing three columns of gas highlighted by the ultraviolet light emitted from a nearby star cluster in M16, a region of the Eagle Nebula in the constellation Serpens, the image has inspired everyone from those behind the recent Star Trek films to children who aspire to study astronomy.

In honor of the telescopes upcoming 25th anniversary in April, NASA has provided a clearer view of the celestial phenomenon, with new high-definition images of the pillars that are being unveiled at this weeks American Astronomical Society meeting.

What is it that gives the image such power? For Ray Villard, news director at the Space Telescope Science Institute, the photograph gave people a look at the universe as something that was organic and not a dark void.

It looks almost like a fantasy landscape theres a feel to it that convinces yourself that you are looking at something that is living under a microscope, Villard told FoxNews.com. It defies expectations of whats out there in space.

Villard, who first became interested in astronomy when he caught a glimpse of an image of a similar celestial site the Horsehead Nebula as a young child, said that these kinds of images, made possible by the wide reach of Hubble, are inspirational and resonate way beyond hardcore science. In short, these glimpses at the far reaches of space are accessible in that they make astronomy tangible for the science lay person.

The image of the pillars sheds light on the constantly shifting face of the universe. The gaseous bodies suggest creation but also destruction, according to a release from NASA.

Read more:
'FANTASY LANDSCAPE' High-def version of Hubble image marks anniversary

NASA released a high-definition version of the famous Pillars of Creation to mark the Hubble Space Telescopes upcoming 25th anniversary.Photo: Getty Images

The Hubble Telescope kick-started its 25th year in orbit Monday by revisiting one of its most popular images ever captured the Pillars of Creation.

The awe-inspiring towers of interstellar gas and dust, which were initially photographed in 1995, were photographed again nearly 20 years later for a special anniversary picture that will be unveiled this week at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle, NASA reports.

Snapped 6,500 light-years away in area M16 of the Eagle Nebula, the images depict a mesmerizing deep space spectacle of three giant columns of cold gas, bathed in the scorching ultraviolet light from a cluster of young, massive stars.

Portrayed in visible light, the new pictures provide enhanced details and better contrast for astronomers studying how the structure changes over time.

We have caught these pillars at a very unique and short-lived moment in their evolution, said Arizona State Universitys Paul Scowen, a professor also helped capture the 1995 original. The ghostly bluish haze around the dense edges of the pillars is material getting heated up and evaporating away into space.

The multi-colored glow of gas clouds and wispy tendrils of dark cosmic dust that are seen intertwining with the rust-colored towers in both images depict an interstellar tango unlike anything seen before, Scowen said.

There is the only one thing that can light up a neighborhood like this: massive stars kicking out enough horsepower in ultraviolet light to ionize the gas clouds and make them glow, he explained. Nebulous star-forming regions like M16 are the interstellar neon signs that say, We just made a bunch of massive stars here.

When scientists first stumbled upon the Pillars of Creation, it was the first time anyone had directly seen observational evidence of the erosionary process, not just radiation but the mechanical stripping away of the gas, according to NASA.

But despite its name, the 2014 images now suggest the structure should instead be referred to as the Pillars of Destruction.

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Hubbles Pillars of Creation, as spectacular as ever

(ABC News) A striking photo taken by the Hubble Space Telescope shows the "Pillars of Creation" more than two decades after the cosmic columns of gas were first photographed by NASA's orbiting telescope.

The new high-definition photo is wider and shows the silhouettes of the pillars as they are surrounded by stars.

Located nearly 7,000 light years away in the distant M16 part of the Eagle Nebula, the new image is even more breathtaking than the one captured by Hubble in 1995.

The first photo of the "Pillars of Creation" showed stunning detail of three columns of gas and stars of the Eagle Nebula and captivated those on Earth so much that it appeared everywhere from movies and television shows to a postage stamp.

Paul Scowen, one of the co-leaders of the original Hubble observations of the Eagle Nebula, said the most recent image of the pillars was taken "at a very unique and short-lived moment in their evolution."

"The ghostly bluish haze around the dense edges of the pillars is material getting heated up and evaporating away into space," he said.

See the article here:
Hubble telescope captures majestic photo of the 'Pillars of Creation'

NASAs Hubble Telescope has snapped a new photo of the iconic Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula 6,500 light years away. Credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team

In 1995, the Hubble Telescope snapped a stunning photo in the Eagle Nebula, 6,500 light years from Earth. The photo revealed three gigantic columns of cold gas, illuminated by the ultraviolet light from nearby young stars. The Pillars of Creation became one of the telescopes most iconic and popular images.

Paul Scowen of Arizona State University in Tempe led the original Hubble observations of the Eagle Nebula. He recalled what it was like seeing the photo for the first time.

We laid the pictures out on the table, and we were just gushing because of all the incredible detail that we were seeing for the very first time, he said in a press release from NASA.

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Hubble this year, the telescope turned its eyes back to the Pillars of Creation. Photos released yesterday from NASA show the gas columns in a wider view with a higher definition. Hubble also snapped photos in near-infrared. The near-infrared photos pierce through the dense gas and dust to see stars being born in the middle of the gas columns.

The stellar nursery has changed significantly in 19 years, Scowen said. Since the original photo was taken, the Pillars seem to be fading away, he said. The massive nearby young stars have been stripping gas away from the Pillars, something astronomers observed in the original photo. Strong stellar winds and heat from close stars have eroded the tops of the Pillars.

Im impressed by how transitory these structures are. They are actively being ablated away before our very eyes. The ghostly bluish haze around the dense edges of the pillars is material getting heated up and evaporating away into space. We have caught these pillars at a very unique and short-lived moment in their evolution, Scowen told NASA.

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Hubbles new high-definition pic shows Pillars of Creation fading away and stars being born

The largest NASA Hubble Space Telescope image ever assembled, this sweeping bird's-eye view of a portion of the Andromeda galaxy (M31) is the sharpest large composite image ever taken of our galactic next-door neighbor. Though the galaxy is over 2 million light-years away, the Hubble telescope is powerful enough to resolve individual stars in a 61,000-light-year-long stretch of the galaxy's pancake-shaped disk. It's like photographing a beach and resolving individual grains of sand. And, there are lots of stars in this sweeping view -- over 100 million, with some of them in thousands of star clusters seen embedded in the disk.

This ambitious photographic cartography of the Andromeda galaxy represents a new benchmark for precision studies of large spiral galaxies that dominate the universe's population of over 100 billion galaxies. Never before have astronomers been able to see individual stars inside an external spiral galaxy over such a large contiguous area. Most of the stars in the universe live inside such majestic star cities, and this is the first data that reveal populations of stars in context to their home galaxy.

Hubble traces densely packed stars extending from the innermost hub of the galaxy, seen at left. Moving out from this central galactic bulge, the panorama sweeps from the galaxy's central bulge across lanes of stars and dust to the sparser outer disk. Large groups of young blue stars indicate the locations of star clusters and star-forming regions. The stars bunch up in the blue ring-like feature toward the right side of the image. The dark silhouettes trace out complex dust structures. Underlying the entire galaxy is a smooth distribution of cooler red stars that trace Andromeda's evolution over billions of years.

Because the galaxy is only 2.5 million light-years from Earth, it is a much bigger target in the sky than the myriad galaxies Hubble routinely photographs that are billions of light-years away. This means that the Hubble survey is assembled together into a mosaic image using 7,398 exposures taken over 411 individual pointings.

The panorama is the product of the Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury (PHAT) program. Images were obtained from viewing the galaxy in near-ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared wavelengths, using the Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Wide Field Camera 3 aboard Hubble. This cropped view shows a 48,000-light-year-long stretch of the galaxy in its natural visible-light color, as photographed with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys in red and blue filters July 2010 through October 2013.

The panorama is being presented at the 225th Meeting of the Astronomical Society in Seattle, Washington.

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The above story is based on materials provided by Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI). Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Hubble's high-definition panoramic view of Andromeda galaxy

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Newswise The largest NASA Hubble Space Telescope image ever assembled, this sweeping bird's-eye view of a portion of the Andromeda galaxy (M31) is the sharpest large composite image ever taken of our galactic next-door neighbor. Though the galaxy is over 2 million light-years away, the Hubble telescope is powerful enough to resolve individual stars in a 61,000-light-year-long stretch of the galaxy's pancake-shaped disk. It's like photographing a beach and resolving individual grains of sand. And, there are lots of stars in this sweeping view -- over 100 million, with some of them in thousands of star clusters seen embedded in the disk.

This ambitious photographic cartography of the Andromeda galaxy represents a new benchmark for precision studies of large spiral galaxies that dominate the universe's population of over 100 billion galaxies. Never before have astronomers been able to see individual stars inside an external spiral galaxy over such a large contiguous area. Most of the stars in the universe live inside such majestic star cities, and this is the first data that reveal populations of stars in context to their home galaxy.

Hubble traces densely packed stars extending from the innermost hub of the galaxy, seen at left. Moving out from this central galactic bulge, the panorama sweeps from the galaxy's central bulge across lanes of stars and dust to the sparser outer disk. Large groups of young blue stars indicate the locations of star clusters and star-forming regions. The stars bunch up in the blue ring-like feature toward the right side of the image. The dark silhouettes trace out complex dust structures. Underlying the entire galaxy is a smooth distribution of cooler red stars that trace Andromeda's evolution over billions of years.

Because the galaxy is only 2.5 million light-years from Earth, it is a much bigger target in the sky than the myriad galaxies Hubble routinely photographs that are billions of light-years away. This means that the Hubble survey is assembled together into a mosaic image using 7,398 exposures taken over 411 individual pointings.

The panorama is the product of the Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury (PHAT) program. Images were obtained from viewing the galaxy in near-ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared wavelengths, using the Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Wide Field Camera 3 aboard Hubble. This cropped view shows a 48,000-light-year-long stretch of the galaxy in its natural visible-light color, as photographed with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys in red and blue filters July 2010 through October 2013.

The panorama is being presented at the 225th Meeting of the Astronomical Society in Seattle, Washington.

Credit: NASA, ESA, J. Dalcanton, B.F. Williams, and L.C. Johnson (University of Washington), the PHAT team, and R. Gendler

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Hubble's High-Definition Panoramic View of the Andromeda Galaxy