Celebrate the 35th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope with a gigantic tower of gas and dust

As part of their ongoing celebration of the Hubble Space Telescope's 35th anniversary, NASA and ESA have shared a new image of the Eagle Nebula, specifically a "spire of cosmic gas and dust" that's in a region last captured by the telescope two decades ago. The tower in the image is 9.5 light years tall, according to NASA and ESA, and only a portion of the larger Eagle Nebula, which is considered a "nursery" for young stars. The tower's unique mix of oranges and dark blues is thanks to a combination of swirling hydrogen gas and space dust. The nebula's "Eagle" name comes from how it looks when you pan across it, where edge clouds like the one in the image look like the wings of a giant bird of prey. ESA/Hubble & NASA, K. Noll As of late, the James Webb Telescope has become the designated source for spectacular images of space, but clearly Hubble still has some juice in it, too. Some of that is thanks to "new data processing techniques" that are being applied to the images captured by the telescope.  The Eagle Nebula is just one of several celestial targets Hubble is revisiting for its 35th anniversary. By capturing different angles and using data differently, the telescope is able to produce more spectacularly colored images. There's no major discoveries made with these "reruns," but they are, without a doubt, even cooler than before. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/celebrate-the-35th-anniversary-of-the-hubble-space-telescope-with-a-gigantic-tower-of-gas-and-dust-184340147.html?src=rss

Apr 18, 2025 - 19:52
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Celebrate the 35th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope with a gigantic tower of gas and dust

As part of their ongoing celebration of the Hubble Space Telescope's 35th anniversary, NASA and ESA have shared a new image of the Eagle Nebula, specifically a "spire of cosmic gas and dust" that's in a region last captured by the telescope two decades ago.

The tower in the image is 9.5 light years tall, according to NASA and ESA, and only a portion of the larger Eagle Nebula, which is considered a "nursery" for young stars. The tower's unique mix of oranges and dark blues is thanks to a combination of swirling hydrogen gas and space dust. The nebula's "Eagle" name comes from how it looks when you pan across it, where edge clouds like the one in the image look like the wings of a giant bird of prey.

This towering structure of billowing gas and dark, obscuring dust might only be a small portion of the Eagle Nebula, but it is no less majestic in appearance for it. 9.5 light-years tall and 7000 light-years distant from Earth, this dusty sculpture is refreshed with the use of new processing techniques. The new Hubble image is part of ESA/Hubble's 35th anniversary celebrations. The cosmic cloud shown here is made of cold hydrogen gas, like the rest of the Eagle Nebula. In such regions of space new stars are born among the collapsing clouds. Hot, energetic and formed in great numbers, the stars unleash an onslaught of ultraviolet light and stellar winds that sculpt the gas clouds around them. This produces fantastical shapes like the narrow pillar with blossoming head that we see here. The material in the pillar is thick and opaque to light; it is highlighted at its edges by the glow of more distant gas behind it. The blue colours of the background are dominated by emission from ionised oxygen; the red colours lower down, glowing hydrogen. Orange colours indicate starlight that has managed to break through the dust: bluer wavelengths are blocked more easily by dust, leaving the redder light to pass through. The stars responsible for carving this particular structure out of the stellar raw material lie just out of view, at the Eagle Nebula's centre. As the pressure of their intense radiation batters and compresses the gas in this tower of clouds, it's possible that further star formation is being ignited within. While the starry pillar has withstood these forces well so far, cutting an impressive shape against the background, eventually it will be totally eroded by the multitude of new stars that form in the Eagle Nebula.
ESA/Hubble & NASA, K. Noll

As of late, the James Webb Telescope has become the designated source for spectacular images of space, but clearly Hubble still has some juice in it, too. Some of that is thanks to "new data processing techniques" that are being applied to the images captured by the telescope. 

The Eagle Nebula is just one of several celestial targets Hubble is revisiting for its 35th anniversary. By capturing different angles and using data differently, the telescope is able to produce more spectacularly colored images. There's no major discoveries made with these "reruns," but they are, without a doubt, even cooler than before. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/celebrate-the-35th-anniversary-of-the-hubble-space-telescope-with-a-gigantic-tower-of-gas-and-dust-184340147.html?src=rss