Hubble Makes ‘Pillars Of Creation’ Look Better Than Ever

universetoday.com ^ | on January 6, 2015 | Elizabeth Howell

[BenLurkin]

Embedded in these Eagle Nebula towers, which are sometimes called elephant trunks, are stars under creation. And in a short span of 20 years, you can see how the stars are slowly blowing the pillars apart. This is leading some press officials to call the structures “pillars of destruction.” And astronomers can chart how everything is changing over time.

“I’m impressed by how transitory these structures are. They are actively being ablated away before our very eyes,” stated Paul Scowen of Arizona State University in Tempe, one of the astronomers who led the 1995 observations.

[BenLurkin]

Well...different anyway...

The Eagle Nebula’s pillars of creation taken in 1995 (right) and 2014. The new image was obtained with the Wide Field Camera 3, installed by astronauts in 2009. Credit: Left: NASA, ESA/Hubble and the Hubble Heritage Team. Right: NASA, ESA/Hubble, STScI, J. Hester and P. Scowen (Arizona State University)

[FatherofFive]

It was great when the United States had a Space Agency.

[cripplecreek]

Do you have any idea how many ongoing missions there are right now?

[EternalVigilance]

What? You mean it didn’t take bazillions of years?

[Jack Hydrazine]

Inkblot test!

What does it look like?

[gdani]

It was great when the United States had a Space Agency.

You either forgot your "/sarc" tag or have not been paying attention.

[rarestia]

An elephant running

[nothingnew]

Pingora

FMCDH(BITS)

[dayglored]

I don't get it... other than the colors being different, and the resolution being better, the new image on the left looks just like the old one on the right, just not as "close up". I don't see any changes in shape.

Can somebody point out the changes they're talking about? Maybe I'm not as sharp-eyed as y'all...

[left that other site]

You mean to tell me there were no “naughty bits” behind the blacked-out section in the upper right hand corner?

[FroggyTheGremlim]

Yes, there was a full-color picture of Uranus there.

[left that other site]

With a ring around it!

[FatherofFive]

You either forgot your "/sarc" tag or have not been paying attention.

We can't launch supplies to the ISS. Obama changed the NASA mission to Muslim Outreach. NASA is a cheerleader for climate change.

No /s was forgotten.

[BenLurkin]

ET photobombed the first one.

[Fightin Whitey]

What does it look like?

[Salamander]

A giant ground sloth, reaching upward.

[BenLurkin]

That works!

[dragnet2]

Looks like they just played with the data when processing the image...It's better resolution, but not much..

But it's way better than my backyard attempts below..

What my camera capture of the pillars above...

And a close up/enlargement of the pillars..

Of course mine didn't take multiple billions to capture, and some of my equipment supporting the optical platform was from a salvage yard.

[Maceman]

Yes, there was a full-color picture of Uranus there.

And also one of da red spot dat ju have on ju piter.

[PIF]

I’ve had the image on the right in hi-def since 2004 ...