The Pillars of Creation

The Orion Nebula

The vastness of space belies human experience. In comparsion, we are tiny, ephmeral creatures living on a speck of dust. It is not truly possible, I believe, to grasp the grandeur of the cosmos, to hold the whole of it in our imagination, but we can see enough to wonder, to feel our place in it. Most of us, as we peruse through social media, will scroll by images like The Pillars of Creation and marvel at their beauty, even if for a moment. Perhaps some may consider all the scientific and technological achievement required to take such an image.

Most common elements in Nebulas

Nebulas are where stars and solar systems are
born out of the interstellar medium, a dance of radiation, magnetism and matter that exists among the stars. The Orion Nebula, owing to its largeness in the sky, may be the most famous. We see it because the gases within have ignited in color. Hydrogen is the main ingredient.  As it transitions form one state of energy to another glows in a variety of colors, it gives rise to true visual beauty.

The Pillars of Creation

The Pillars of Creation are part of the Eagle Nebula, also known as The Star Queen and The Spire.  This cluster of gas, dust and radiance, is about seven thousand light years away and hold about eight thousand stars. The image from Hubble is of a bigone time. The pillars may already be no more, removed by a shockwave of one of the most powerful events know to exist in the universe, a supernova explosion.


See The Scale of the Universe