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Hubble Revisits 'Pillars of Creation' for Stunning Photo

Redress

Redress

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Hubble Revisits 'Pillars of Creation' for Stunning Photo - NBC News

n celebration of its upcoming 25th anniversary in April, the Hubble Space Telescope has returned to the site of what may be its most famous image, the wispy columns of the Eagle Nebula, and produced a stunning new picture. "The Pillars of Creation," located 6,500 light-years away in area M16 of the distant nebula, were photographed in visible and near-infrared light with the Hubble's upgraded equipment, and the result is as astonishing now as the original was in 1995. Hubble went online in 1990. The anniversary imagery is being revealed at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle. Not only does the enhanced detail make for beauty, but astronomers can see how this corner of the nebula has changed over the last two decades. One small jet-like structure, for instance, has been cruising at about 450,000 miles per hour, traveling 60 billion miles — though it's hard to even spot the difference, so vast are these cosmic columns.
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Simply stunning!

hubble.jpg
 
Hard to imagine that this is what it looked like when we still hadn't invented the wheel. Stunning detail.

Tim-
 
The largest Pillar ( on the left ) is four lightyears long.
 
And to think it all exists for humans. Are we important or what?
 
Fenton said:
The largest Pillar ( on the left ) is four lightyears long.
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I did not know that. Pretty fascinating actually, but I do love this kinda stuff. I am really looking forward to what else will be shown for the 25th anniversary.
 
Fenton said:
The largest Pillar ( on the left ) is four lightyears long.
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The trip from one end to the other using current technology would exceed 30,000 years.
 
Thrilla said:
24 trillion miles long....

or the same distance one would drive if they drove from LA to NY ...10 billion times.
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So Cool...
 
fmw said:
The trip from one end to the other using current technology would exceed 30,000 years.
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If we ever tried that I would hope NASA would officially name it " The Kessel Run ".

You know, so we could make Millennium Falcon jokes.
 
Very beautiful pictures. As someone who knows precious little about astrophysics, I have to wonder what interplay of forces gives these things their form and energy and movement. It seems like all that matter could just as easily be diffuse, or static, or invisible.
 
"The Earth is the cradle of the mind, but one cannot eternally live in a cradle."

- Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky
 
matchlight said:
Very beautiful pictures. As someone who knows precious little about astrophysics, I have to wonder what interplay of forces gives these things their form and energy and movement. It seems like all that matter could just as easily be diffuse, or static, or invisible.
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Massive Clouds of Molecular Hydrogen and dust. A Star factory
 
Fenton said:
If we ever tried that I would hope NASA would officially name it " The Kessel Run ".

You know, so we could make Millennium Falcon jokes.
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It is about the same distance to Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to our own. Makes you wonder how people dreamed up the concept of aliens from outer space. The distances are simply too great.
 
Fenton said:
The largest Pillar ( on the left ) is four lightyears long.
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I didn't know that. It's an amazing photo but to now understand the scale......mindboggling.
 
Mavis said:
That's beautiful. These are colored by NASA technicians right? I wonder how they arrive at the colors they used?
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The mirrors in the Hubble Teloscope are made of glass and coated with layers of pure aluminum and magnesium fluoride ( 1 Millionth of a inch thick ) that allow them to reflect visible, infrared and ultraviolet light.

These mirrors redirect the light from the large primary lens to different and highly sensitive pieces of electronic equipment. Each piece of equipment uses a device called a charge-coupled devices instead of Photographic film. The light detected by the CCDs is turned into digital signals, which are stored on computers in the HBT and relayed to Earth.

It can detect and measure wavelength, which means it can detect and transmit Color images.
 
Fenton said:
The mirrors in the Hubble Teloscope are made of glass and coated with layers of pure aluminum and magnesium fluoride ( 1 Millionth of a inch thick ) that allow them to reflect visible, infrared and ultraviolet light.

These mirrors redirect the light from the large primary lens to different and highly sensitive pieces of electronic equipment. Each piece of equipment uses a device called a charge-coupled devices instead of Photographic film. The light detected by the CCDs are turned into digital signals, which are stored on computers in the HBT and relayed to Earth.

It can detect and measure wavelength, which means it can detect and transmit Color images.
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Thank you! So it is not just a best guess, which is wonderful. Gorgeous imagery.
 
Mavis said:
Thank you! So it is not just a best guess, which is wonderful. Gorgeous imagery.
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Charge-coupled device technology is how Digital Cameras capture and store photographs and that includes the Camera that's in every Cell Phone. The images taken by the Hubble Telescope aren't distorted by our atmosphere or the Ambient light that tends to screw up photographs.

I would say thats exactly what the Pillars of Creation look like
 
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Wait...don't these change over time and was this taken on the same date?

Everything looks the same.
 
WCH said:
Wait...don't these change over time and was this taken on the same date?

Everything looks the same.
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There are changes.

You have to look at the new image blown up. I haven't seen it but they're saying there are new jets that are shooting out of the Nebula at 400 thousand miles an hour.
 
Fenton said:
There are changes.

You have to look at the new image blown up. I haven't seen it but they're saying there are new jets that are shooting out of the Nebula at 400 thousand miles an hour.
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I suppose in galactic time, 10 years isn't that long. :)
 
It's very impressive and fascinating. I can't help, however, seeing several "faces", kind of like Jesus on toast or Mother Teresa on a dried apple. Do there people see these?
 
CanadaJohn said:
It's very impressive and fascinating. I can't help, however, seeing several "faces", kind of like Jesus on toast or Mother Teresa on a dried apple. Do there people see these?
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How can you not see Elvis? It is as clear as day. Wink wink.
 
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