Throughout the years, Hubble and the JWST have put out hundreds of awe-inspiring photos. There is one photo that caught my eye last year when I was taking an astronomy class at Pikes Peak State College. The picture was of large pillars of gas shooting into deep space, with massive stars littering the background of the photo. The picture I was looking at was of the Pillars of Creation, taken by Hubble in 1995. Little did I know, this photo would kick off a fascination with these pillars that would continue to this day. They are the reason I decided to pursue astronomy and kicked off my fascination with star formation.
Each pillar is around three to five light-years tall and has active star formation going on inside them. You see, the pillars are, despite their size, a small part of a much larger nebula called the Eagle Nebula. The full nebula is located around 6,500 to 7,000 light-years away from Earth and spans an area of about fifty-five by seventy light-years. It is in the constellation Serpens, and you can see the Eagle Nebula with a small telescope and clear weather. To see the pillars, however, you would need a much larger telescope.
Hubble: 1995 JWST: 2022
One of the first things you notice while looking at the pillars is that they are covered in these little offshoots. Each of these ‘fingers’ is larger than our solar system, which really makes you pause and consider just how large these pillars are. This fact is what initiated my love for these pillars. They are not only beautiful, but they are massive as well.
Hubble took a couple of photos of the Pillars. Once in 1995 and again in 2014. Those photos are amazing, but due to the light wavelengths Hubble’s instruments operate in, mostly ultraviolet and visible light, it struggled to see through the clouds of dust and interstellar medium as well as a dedicated infrared telescope could. Then, in 2022, JWST captured its first images of the pillars, and it gave astronomers the opportunity to see through the clouds and into the stellar nursery on the inside.
These latest photos showed the
active star formation happening inside the pillars themselves, as well as
the surrounding Nebula. In the photo, there are bright red spots at the end of some
of the pillars. These are spots where stars are sending material out as they form.
It also shows larger, young stars starting to burst through the pillars. These
photos, combined with Hubble’s observations, have increased our knowledge of the pillars
and helped gather data on active star formation.
Attached is a video briefly describing the photos by the JWST:
Sadly, it is that very star
formation that will be the downfall of the pillars. Large stellar winds from
these massive stars are what gave the pillars their beautiful shape, but they
will also blow them apart. We see the pillars as they were 6,500 years ago, so it
may be true that the pillars are already gone. Scattered by the very stars they
birthed. What we see is a ghost of beauty that was.
I am sure an experienced astronomer
could tell me why it is not actually that impressive in the scale of the
universe. There are larger nebulas with structures larger than the pillars.
There are pictures of giant galaxies colliding, and an actual picture of a
black hole. There are long-exposure pictures of blank space that show thousands of galaxies just out of sight.
The universe is full of amazing
things, but for me, the Pillars of Creation are the most beautiful,
awe-inspiring thing we have found so far, at least that I know of. It is hard
for us to comprehend the scales we deal with in astronomy, but the Pillars of
Creation sit in this comprehensible sweet spot. They are large enough to make you
sit back and say “wow”, but not so large that the numbers lose all meaning.
When you say a black hole has a
mass of one million Suns, I understand the concept, but my brain turns off to a
degree with numbers that large. The same thing happens when discussing things
at the scale of galaxies. It is amazing, but too amazing in a way. For me, the
Pillars of Creation live in a space where I can both understand and be amazed
by their purpose, their scale, and their beauty.
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