The Eagle Nebula (M16) is a star-forming cloud in Serpens, home of the Pillars of Creation, columns of cold gas and dust being worn away by a young cluster.
At a glance
| type | nebula |
|---|---|
| distance from the Sun | 5,680 light-years (1.74 kpc) |
| its light left it | 5,680 years ago |
| size in the piece | about 59 light-years acrossmodel |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with. Model marks a property of the piece’s galaxy model rather than a measurement.
About Eagle Nebula (M16)
The Eagle is an emission nebula: hydrogen made to glow by the ultraviolet light of NGC 6611, a young cluster of hot, massive stars. Their light and winds have hollowed out a cavity in the molecular cloud they formed from, and the walls of that cavity are where the nebula shines brightest.
On the far wall stand the Pillars of Creation, made famous by a Hubble image. Each column is gas sheltered by a denser knot at its tip: the knot holds out against the starlight, the cloud in its shadow survives, and everything around it is stripped away. The tips glow where the light is boiling them off, and small fingers of gas there may still be forming stars.
The same thing is happening all round the cavity, in smaller columns and in a tall single tower of gas often called the Spire. In time the cluster will wear them all away, and the nebula with them.
What you see in the piece
Fly to the Pillars from the WONDERS list and they stand in front of you as solid columns, dark inside, rimmed with light on the side facing the cluster. Pull back and the whole cavity opens up around them.
Measured or modelled
The layout follows the images. How the pillars and the cluster sit along the line of sight is modelled, guided by studies that mapped the pillars in depth.
Questions
What are the Pillars of Creation?
They are columns of cold gas and dust in the Eagle Nebula, sheltered by dense knots at their tips while the light of a nearby young cluster wears away the gas around them.
Where is the Eagle Nebula?
It lies in the constellation Serpens, on the summer Milky Way, in the direction of the inner Galaxy.