Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Hubble Takes New Photo of Eagle Nebula Pillars

NASA's legendary Hubble Space Telescope first captured a stunning image of the three giant "Pillars of Creation" in the year 1995. About to celebrate its 25th Anniversary of launching in space, the telescope captured a more brilliant image of the Eagle Nebula in 2014. The new image extends below the pillars to show a pedestal that sits below them. The aura around the pillars/fingers is a brilliant bright blue that outshines the duller 1995 photo. Eagle Nebula, also known as Messier 16 (M16) and New General Catalogue 6611 (NGC 6611), is found in the southern region of Serpens Cauda (Serpent's Tail), a constellation geographically located west of Aquila and Scutum, south of Hercules, west of Ophiuchus, and south of Sagittarius. Access the full news release from HubbleSite (page saved by the Internet Archive), the official website for the Hubble telescope.

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Blog Background

The background has three Hubble Space Telescope images:

— LH 95 is a star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud, Dorado constellation.

— Ant Nebula (also called Menzel 3) is an aptly-named planetary nebula located in the constellation Norma.

— Egg Nebula (also called CL 2688) is a protoplanetary nebula in the constellation Cygnus.