Pillars of Creation

by Peter Kennett

Title

Pillars of Creation

Artist

Peter Kennett

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

These towering tendrils of cosmic dust and gas sit at the heart of the Eagle Nebula, located in the constellation Serpens. The aptly named Pillars of Creation, featured in this image are part of an active star-forming region within the nebula and hide newborn stars in their wispy columns.

The blue colors in the image represent oxygen, red is sulfur, and green represents both nitrogen and hydrogen. The pillars are bathed in the scorching ultraviolet light from a cluster of young stars and their winds (outward expansion of plasma) are slowly eroding the towers of gas and dust, a process that will take 100,000 years.

Scattered within this image are a few isolated and relatively small coal black nebulae, called Bok Globules. These contain dense cosmic dust and gas from which star formation may take place. Bok globules have a mass of about 2 to 50 solar masses contained within a region about a light year or so across. They contain molecular hydrogen (H2), carbon oxides and helium, and around 1% (by mass) silicate dust. Bok globules most commonly result in the formation of double- or multiple-star systems.

Photographed from my home observatory in central New Mexico.

Uploaded

September 24th, 2021

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