Space & Astronomy

'Pillars of Creation' unveiled in full 3D

By T.K. Randall
May 4, 2015 ·  9 comments

The image shows clouds of gas and dust in the Eagle Nebula. Image Credit: NASA/ESA First snapped by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995, the 'Pillars of Creation' remains one of the best known and visually impressive astronomical images of the modern age.

Its name is a reference to its significance as a place where new stars are still being born, a 'stellar nursery' located in the Eagle Nebula at a distance of around 7,000 light years from the Earth. Each of the towering columns are comprised of clouds of gas and dust bathed in the ultraviolet light of a nearby star cluster.Now thanks to new data from the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile it has finally been possible to photograph the nebula in three dimensions, revealing for the first time that the pillars are situated in a curved formation with the left-most pillar being the furthest away.

A short video showing the three-dimensional structure of the nebula can be viewed below.


Source: CNET.com | Comments (9)

Tags: Pillars of Creation, Nebula