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The Pillars of Creation - Hubble Vision 1

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I love space and being boggled by the size, beauty, cool physics and chemistry, and general all around awesomeness of it. This amazing image (taken by the Hubble Space Telescope) is one of my favorites. So, in a departure from my normal photos (which are taken almost entirely by me), I am occasionally posting some of my all time favorite space photos.

if you don't need a very short lesson about light but want some cool facts about The Pillars, skip to the end. One of the many exceedingly cool things about space is that, when you look up and out, you are looking back in time. Well, okay, any time you look at something, you are looking back in time. Think about it: because we can only see light particles that have bounced off or been emitted from an object, we are seeing the object as it was when the light particle was reflected or emitted. We don't notice any delay because light is so incredibly fast - a particle of light (a photon) can travel around Earth 7 and a half times in ONE SECOND. However, when we look at something really far away (like our sun), the delay becomes apparent. For example, our sun is far enough away that it takes about 8 minutes for light to travel to us. When we glance at it (never stare at the sun!), we are seeing it as it looked 8 minutes ago. If the sun were to suddenly vanish, we would still see its light for 8 more minutes.

Back to The Pillars of Creation - this massive cloud of gas and dust was about 7000 light years away, so this photo shows the Pillars as they were about 7000 years ago.
Cool fact #1: Scientists think they were destroyed by a nearby supernova 6000 years ago. If astronomers were to take one photo a month for the next 1000 years, our descendants would be able to watch a short (4-ish minute) video of this beautiful structure being completely demolished. Cool fact #2: This sucker was immense, as in about five light years wide immense. For comparison, our entire solar system would easily fit in any of the tiny protrusions sticking out of the tops of the pillars. (You'll have to zoom in to even see these little projections.)
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vbrewer64

@Bemusement i saw something about that just last night, but, as luck would have it, i had already finished my background information and didn't feel like changing it :D when we have a more definite answer, i will, but for now, i will just gaze at this lovely deadliness in awe :) can you imagine our descendants, even 100 years from now, being able to see dramatic changes?

One of my favorite Hubble images as well. Your description was wonderfully informative! There is possible good news for the Pillars. Apparently more recent observations suggest that the Pillars did not fall victim to a supernova but are instead eroding. (Though going out with a bang might be preferable....) We'll have a long wait to find out which theory is correct!

OldManMontgomery

I am familiar with the formation. Every time I see anew, it's scary.

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