The shocking Pillars of Creation, what is happening there?

The Pillars of Creation refers to a part of the Eagle Nebula 6,500 light-years away from us. It is located at the heart of the cloud. When magnified, it looks a bit like irregularly extended fingers. In the images taken by the telescope, it is unpredictable and majestic, which arouses people's endless imagination.

The official scientific name of the Eagle Nebula is M16 Nebula, and it is only a part of the hydrogen ion region of the IC4703 emission nebula. This nebula was captured by the Hubble Telescope on April 1, 1995. With its magnificent and magnificent pictures, it was rated by netizens as one of the top ten best photos of the Hubble Telescope.

Just recently, the newer and more powerful Webb telescope pointed its lens at the Pillars of Creation and took clearer and more beautiful photos. On October 19, NASA showed this set of photos to the world, which once again caused surprise and admiration. Besides being shocking, it seemed to be thought-provoking again.

But whether you think deeply or daydream, it is just a large nebula, just like other nebulas, but it looks a little special. In fact, all nebulae have their own characteristics, just like the human beings on Earth. There are nearly 8 billion people on Earth, each with their own characteristics. Many look alike, but no two are exactly the same.

For example, the Crab Nebula, the Cat's Eye Nebula, the Black Widow Nebula, the Horsehead Nebula, the Eye of God, etc., all have their own characteristics and strange shapes. This is because a nebula is a large cloud of molecular dust in the universe, a bit like the common smoke we see, which will keep floating and changing its shape.

The difference is that the size of the nebula is too large, generally several light years or even dozens or hundreds of light years in size, and there is no wind in space, so the changes of these huge nebulae do not seem to be that fast.

You have to know that Jupiter's Great Red Spot, which can only accommodate a few Earths, is actually a large storm formed by Jupiter's surface gas and has existed for hundreds of years. Moreover, it takes at least tens of millions of years of continuous observation to see significant changes in a nebula that is measured in light years.

There is a reason why people are particularly fond of the Pillars of Creation among all the nebulae discovered so far, because this cluster of nebulae is so shocking that it seems to have life.

In fact, in the Pillars of Creation, "life" is indeed constantly surging. This "life" is certainly not the form of life on Earth, but the prelude or ancestor of life - the stars.

Stars are the most important celestial bodies in the universe, and their number is incalculable. Planets exist only with stars, and life can generally only be bred on planets and rely on the energy of stars. All stars are condensed and formed in nebulae, so it can be said that nebulae are the mother of stars and the ancestor of the ancestors of life.

About 460 stars have been born in the Eagle Nebula, and the brightest O-type star has a mass 80 times that of the sun. The so-called Pillars of Creation are just a few strange protrusions in the heart of the Eagle Nebula, which scientists generally call elephant trunks.

These elephant trunks are the so-called Pillars of Creation. These elephant trunks or pillars are more than one light-year long, and the roots can reach up to 8 light-years.

The reason for this appearance is that the ultraviolet radiation emitted by young stars continuously ionizes and erodes the surrounding nebula gas, forming a photoevaporation phenomenon. These strange columns are the parts that are less eroded, forming a boundary between the bright ionized hydrogen area and the dark molecular cloud.

The eerie shape is caused by regions of ionized hydrogen blocking the nebula dust behind them.

If ionization erosion continues, these fingers or noses will eventually be devoured. Nebulas are originally dark, but the strong light radiation from star clusters gives the nebulas a layered appearance, and the scanning of electromagnetic waves in different bands by telescopes makes the nebulas more colorful and brilliant.

The Pillars of Creation photographed by the Hubble telescope were originally fuzzy and chaotic. The Pillars of Creation photographed by the Webb telescope using the infrared band are clearer. Many stars are clearly shown in the fuzzy and chaotic areas of the original Hubble telescope pictures, which is more spectacular.

Scientists have shown great interest in the Eagle Nebula and the Pillars of Creation because stars are constantly being generated inside them, making them an ideal laboratory for further observation and in-depth research on the star formation process and for studying photoevaporation caused by stellar ionization.

Some astronomers believe that the so-called Pillars of Creation we see now are no longer in existence, and were probably destroyed by a supernova explosion there 6,000 years ago. It's just that because it's more than 6,000 light years away from us, the light of the destruction will take more than 6,000 years to reach our eyes.

Therefore, the Pillars of Creation we see now is just an illusion from 6,500 years ago. What do you think about this? Welcome to discuss and comment, thank you for reading.

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