Human eyes can see only a small portion of the range of radiation given off by the objects around us. We call this wide array of radiation the electromagnetic spectrum, and the part we can see visible light.
In this Hubble Space Telescope image, researchers revisited one of Hubble's most iconic and popular images: the Eagle Nebula’s Pillars of Creation.
Here, the pillars are seen in infrared light, which pierces through obscuring dust and gas and unveil a more unfamiliar - but just as amazing - view of the pillars. The better-known image is of the pillars in visible light.
In this ethereal view the entire frame is peppered with bright stars and baby stars are revealed being formed within the pillars themselves. The ghostly outlines of the pillars seem much more delicate, and are silhouetted against an eerie blue haze.
Explore how light affects the images we see. Find more online activities on Hubble Inspires.
Image Credit: NASA, ESA/Hubble and the Hubble Heritage Team
This cosmic skyscape features glowing gas and dark dust clouds along side the young stars of NGC 3572. A beautiful emission nebula and star cluster in far southern skies, the region is often overlooked by astroimagers in favor of its brighter neighbor, the nearby Carina Nebula. Stars from NGC 3572 are toward the upper left in the telescopic frame that would measure about 100 light-years across at the cluster’s estimated distant of 9,000 light-years. The visible interstellar gas and dust is part of the star cluster’s natal molecular cloud. Dense streamers of material within the nebula, eroded by stellar winds and radiation, clearly trail away from the energetic young stars. They are likely sites of ongoing star formation with shapes reminiscent of the cosmic Tadpoles of IC 410 better known to northern skygazers. In the coming tens to hundreds of millions of years, gas and stars in the cluster will be dispersed though, by gravitational tides and by violent supernova explosions that end the short lives of the massive cluster stars.
The Carina Nebula is one of the largest diffuse nebulae in the sky, and contains several open star clusters within it’s boundaries. Measuring at nearly four times the size of the Orion Nebula, it is located in the Southern region of the Sky. Inside lies Eta Carinae, a luminous hypergiant star with a mass ranging from 100 to 150 times that of out Sun, and four million times as bright.
