The above photo is a picture captured by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope of what is now known as the “Pillars of Creation.” Located in the Eagle Nebula, which is around 6,500 – 7,000 light years away from Earth, the structures are named as such because of their pillar-like shape, as well as because the gas and dust in the picture are in the process of creating new stars. Looking at the photograph, it is easy to see why the pillars have become so iconic for its beauty.
For scientists, the pillars are useful because they provide new insights on the creation of a solar system. Astronomer Jeff Hester says that the pillars “are actively being ablated away before our very eyes. The ghostly bluish haze around the dense edges of the pillars is material getting heated up and evaporating away into space. We have caught these pillars at a very unique and short-lived moment in their evolution.” The pillars were important because they were the first time that direct observational evidence of the erosionary process of a nebula was being seen.
