Pretty soon, the Hubble telescope will celebrate its 35th birthday. In honor of the occasion, NASA has published a spectacular new photo. The image shows a huge black pillar in the Eagle Nebula.
The Eagle Nebula is located at a distance of about 7,000 light-years from Earth. It is a young, diffuse star cluster. Hubble has photographed the region many times during its lifetime. In particular, it is home to the famous Pillars of Creation — clusters of interstellar gas and dust that are involved in the formation of new stars.
However, the Pillars of Creation are far from the only attraction of the Eagle Nebula. It is home to the Black Pillar, also known by the unofficial name the “Fairy”. The pillar is composed of cold gas and dust, and is 9.5 light-years across. That’s more than the distance from Earth to Sirius. Like a pointing finger, the black pillar points toward the center of the nebula and the young star cluster located within it.
The existence of such bizarre structures is due to the radiation produced by newborn luminaries. Their powerful winds gradually disrupt the surrounding gas-dust clouds, forming various bizarre structures in them, consisting of denser gas regions.
It’s worth noting that this is not the first photo of the black pillar. The last time Hubble photographed it was in 2005 on the occasion of its 15th birthday. A few years afterward, a service expedition visited the telescope and installed more advanced cameras on it. In addition, new image processing techniques have since been created. Because of this, the new image has revealed a number of previously unknown details about the Eagle Nebula and allowed astronomers to learn more about this bizarre region of our galaxy.
According to Esahubble
