Category Archives: Hubble Telescope

NASA

The Pillars of Creation, first taken in 1995, showed giant columns of cold gas in the Eagle Nebula which are in the process of creating new stars.

The shot, which featured dazzling ultraviolet light in the background, went on to appear on countless T-shirts, book covers and in movies.

Ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Hubble telescope being launched into space, NASA revisited the pillars to take new crystal clear pictures of it.

The images were taken with near-infrared and visible light which provides astronomers with a wider and more sharper view of the pillars.

NASA

We have caught these pillars at a very unique and short-lived moment in their evolution

Paul Scowen from Arizona State University

The pictures were unveiled at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle.

Paul Scowen, of Arizona State University, said: "I'm impressed by how transitory these structures are.

Excerpt from:
NASA revisits iconic 'Pillars of Creation' shot for Hubble Telescope 25th anniversary

SEATTLE The Hubble Space Telescope has captured an amazing new photo of the Andromeda Galaxy. The new mosaic image represents the sharpest and largest mosaic image of the Milky Way's galactic neighbor ever taken, Hubble officials said.

The panoramic image shows striking details of the bright galaxy, which is located about 2.5 million light-years from Earth. While that may seem far away, Hubble usually trains its view on more distant targets. Because Andromeda fills up so much of Hubble's field of view, the telescope was able to capture incredible detail in its survey of the galaxy. Fly through the amazing Andromeda image in a new video as well.

The newly-released image stretches across about 48,000 light-years of the galaxy's disk, according to Hubble officials. In total, the image shows more than 100 million stars in the galaxy. Hubble officials revealed the new photo during a news conference here at the 225th meeting of the American Astronomical Society. [See more amazing Hubble Space Telescope photos]

"Hubble traces densely packed stars extending from the innermost hub of the galaxy, seen at left," Hubble representatives said in a statement. "Moving out from this central galactic bulge, the panorama sweeps from the galaxy's central bulge across lanes of stars and dust to the sparser outer disk."

Scientists can use this image to help them interpret other spiral galaxies like theAndromeda galaxythat might have similar light signatures, but are farther from Earth.

The panorama was created as part of the Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury (PHAT) program. This image was created as a mosaic of 7,398 exposures taken over the course of 411 pointings of the telescope, according to Hubble officials.

"Large groups of young blue stars indicate the locations of star clusters and star-forming regions. The stars bunch up in the blue ring-like feature toward the right side of the image," Hubble representatives said in the same statement. "The dark silhouettes trace out complex dust structures. Underlying the entire galaxy is a smooth distribution of cooler red stars that trace Andromeda's evolution over billions of years."

Andromeda and the Milky Way are on the way toward a crash of cosmic proportions. The two galaxies will merge, forming one new galaxy billions of years from now.

You can explore a zoomable version of the new PHAT image directly through Hubble here: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2015/02/image/a/format/zoom/

Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

Read more from the original source:
Hubble Telescope Captures Best View Ever of the Andromeda Galaxy

New Hubble Telescope images / video: Pillars of Creation The Eagle Nebula
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has revisited one of its most iconic and popular images: the Eagle Nebula #39;s Pillars of Creation. This time Hubble has not just one image for us, but two:...

By: Amazing Space - Astounding Images and Videos

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New Hubble Telescope images / video: Pillars of Creation The Eagle Nebula - Video

Hubble Telescope Re-Captures Pillars Of Creation In Stunning HD
The Hubble Telescope celebrates its 25th anniversary in April, and to get ready for the festivities it recently revisited one of its most popular locales, the Pillars of Creation. The Hubble...

By: GeoBeats News

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Hubble Telescope Re-Captures Pillars Of Creation In Stunning HD - Video

Iconic #39;Pillars of Creation #39; in space Hubble Telescope
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Iconic 'Pillars of Creation' in space Hubble Telescope - Video

By Brian Mastroianni

A bigger and sharper Hubble telescope photograph of the iconic Eagle Nebula's 'Pillars of Creation' (R) is seen next to the original 1995 Hubble picture in this NASA image released January 6, 2015.(REUTERS/NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team/Handout via Reuters)

A Hubble telescope photograph of the iconic Eagle Nebula 'Pillars of Creation' is seen in this NASA image released January 6, 2015.(REUTERS/NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team/Handout via Reuters)

In 1995, NASAs Hubble Space Telescope released an iconic image that changed peoples perception of space. Through the photo of the so-called Pillars of Creation, the telescope offered a glimpse at what the origins of our own solar systems sun might have looked like.

Showing three columns of gas highlighted by the ultraviolet light emitted from a nearby star cluster in M16, a region of the Eagle Nebula in the constellation Serpens, the image has inspired everyone from those behind the recent Star Trek films to children who aspire to study astronomy.

In honor of the telescopes upcoming 25th anniversary in April, NASA has provided a clearer view of the celestial phenomenon, with new high-definition images of the pillars that are being unveiled at this weeks American Astronomical Society meeting.

What is it that gives the image such power? For Ray Villard, news director at the Space Telescope Science Institute, the photograph gave people a look at the universe as something that was organic and not a dark void.

It looks almost like a fantasy landscape theres a feel to it that convinces yourself that you are looking at something that is living under a microscope, Villard told FoxNews.com. It defies expectations of whats out there in space.

Villard, who first became interested in astronomy when he caught a glimpse of an image of a similar celestial site the Horsehead Nebula as a young child, said that these kinds of images, made possible by the wide reach of Hubble, are inspirational and resonate way beyond hardcore science. In short, these glimpses at the far reaches of space are accessible in that they make astronomy tangible for the science lay person.

The image of the pillars sheds light on the constantly shifting face of the universe. The gaseous bodies suggest creation but also destruction, according to a release from NASA.

Original post:
NASA honors Hubble's 25th anniversary with high-def version of iconic image

SEATTLE A famous deep-space object imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope 20 years ago has been reborn in an amazing new photo.

Scientists pointed the telescope at the iconic Eagle Nebula, also known as Messier 16 (M16), capturing the famous "Pillars of Creation" in sharper and wider view. The new and improved image was possible thanks to upgrades made to the Hubble Space Telescope over the past 25 years. You can see the new Pillars of Creation image in detail in a breathtaking new video of the Hubble views as well.

"It allows us to demonstrate how far Hubble has come in 25 years of observation," Paul Scowen, of Arizona State University, said during a news conference here at the 225th meeting of the American Astronomical Society Monday (Jan. 5). Scowen was one of the astronomers who helped take the original iconic image. [See more amazing images from Hubble]

"It really is quite remarkable," he added.

Dubbed the "Pillars of Creation" when it was discovered in 1995, the Eagle Nebula view is arguably the most famous of all of Hubble's images. It has appeared on postage stamps, T-shirts and pillows, and even made the rounds in television shows and movies. Located approximately 7,000 light-years from the sun, M16 is a region of gas and dust where stars form at a rapid clip.

The new Hubble image utilizes the Wide Field Camera 3, installed in 2009, to reveal the star-forming region at twice the resolution of the original instrument. As with the original image, taken by the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, elements in the image appear as different colors: Red reveals singly ionized sulfur, blue shows double-ionized oxygen and green highlights hydrogen.

Along with releasing the sharper new photo, the Hubble team revealed an image of the Eagle Nebula in the infrared wavelength, which cuts through the dust and gas to reveal significantly more stars.

"The pillars themselves become quite transparent in the infrared," Scowen said.

The infrared image reveals that the pillars still exist after two decades because their dense heads shadow the gas beneath them. The massive young stars at their hearts are violent places, with rapid stellar winds blowing away the lighter material. Gas between the columns evaporated long ago due to the heat from bright young stars.

The new images also show changes that have taken place in the nebula over the past two decades. Several protostar systems create long jets that Scowen described as "signposts pointing back to 'We just made a star right here.'" Some of these squiggly jets, which cut through the dust and gas, have moved over in the time since the original image was taken.

Read the original here:
Hubble Telescope Captures Spectacular New Views of 'Pillars of Creation'

A striking photo taken by the Hubble Space Telescope shows the "Pillars of Creation" more than two decades after the cosmic columns of gas were first photographed by NASA's orbiting telescope.

The new high-definition photo is wider and shows the silhouettes of the pillars as they are surrounded by stars.

Located nearly 7,000 light years away in the distant M16 part of the Eagle Nebula, the new image is even more breathtaking than the one captured by Hubble in 1995.

The first photo of the "Pillars of Creation" showed stunning detail of three columns of gas and stars of the Eagle Nebula and captivated those on Earth so much that it appeared everywhere from movies and television shows to a postage stamp.

NASA/ESA

PHOTO: A comparison of the "Pillars of Creation" in 1995 and 2014.

Paul Scowen, one of the co-leaders of the original Hubble observations of the Eagle Nebula, said the most recent image of the pillars was taken "at a very unique and short-lived moment in their evolution."

"The ghostly bluish haze around the dense edges of the pillars is material getting heated up and evaporating away into space," he said.

Read this article:
Hubble Telescope Captures Majestic Photo

By Brian Mastroianni

A bigger and sharper Hubble telescope photograph of the iconic Eagle Nebula's 'Pillars of Creation' (R) is seen next to the original 1995 Hubble picture in this NASA image released January 6, 2015.(REUTERS/NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team/Handout via Reuters)

A Hubble telescope photograph of the iconic Eagle Nebula 'Pillars of Creation' is seen in this NASA image released January 6, 2015.(REUTERS/NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team/Handout via Reuters)

In 1995, NASAs Hubble Space Telescope released an iconic image that changed peoples perception of space. Through the photo of the so-called Pillars of Creation, the telescope offered a glimpse at what the origins of our own solar systems sun might have looked like.

Showing three columns of gas highlighted by the ultraviolet light emitted from a nearby star cluster in M16, a region of the Eagle Nebula in the constellation Serpens, the image has inspired everyone from those behind the recent Star Trek films to children who aspire to study astronomy.

In honor of the telescopes upcoming 25th anniversary in April, NASA has provided a clearer view of the celestial phenomenon, with new high-definition images of the pillars that are being unveiled at this weeks American Astronomical Society meeting.

What is it that gives the image such power? For Ray Villard, news director at the Space Telescope Science Institute, the photograph gave people a look at the universe as something that was organic and not a dark void.

It looks almost like a fantasy landscape theres a feel to it that convinces yourself that you are looking at something that is living under a microscope, Villard told FoxNews.com. It defies expectations of whats out there in space.

Villard, who first became interested in astronomy when he caught a glimpse of an image of a similar celestial site the Horsehead Nebula as a young child, said that these kinds of images, made possible by the wide reach of Hubble, are inspirational and resonate way beyond hardcore science. In short, these glimpses at the far reaches of space are accessible in that they make astronomy tangible for the science lay person.

The image of the pillars sheds light on the constantly shifting face of the universe. The gaseous bodies suggest creation but also destruction, according to a release from NASA.

Read more:
'FANTASY LANDSCAPE' High-def version of Hubble image marks anniversary

NASA released a high-definition version of the famous Pillars of Creation to mark the Hubble Space Telescopes upcoming 25th anniversary.Photo: Getty Images

The Hubble Telescope kick-started its 25th year in orbit Monday by revisiting one of its most popular images ever captured the Pillars of Creation.

The awe-inspiring towers of interstellar gas and dust, which were initially photographed in 1995, were photographed again nearly 20 years later for a special anniversary picture that will be unveiled this week at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle, NASA reports.

Snapped 6,500 light-years away in area M16 of the Eagle Nebula, the images depict a mesmerizing deep space spectacle of three giant columns of cold gas, bathed in the scorching ultraviolet light from a cluster of young, massive stars.

Portrayed in visible light, the new pictures provide enhanced details and better contrast for astronomers studying how the structure changes over time.

We have caught these pillars at a very unique and short-lived moment in their evolution, said Arizona State Universitys Paul Scowen, a professor also helped capture the 1995 original. The ghostly bluish haze around the dense edges of the pillars is material getting heated up and evaporating away into space.

The multi-colored glow of gas clouds and wispy tendrils of dark cosmic dust that are seen intertwining with the rust-colored towers in both images depict an interstellar tango unlike anything seen before, Scowen said.

There is the only one thing that can light up a neighborhood like this: massive stars kicking out enough horsepower in ultraviolet light to ionize the gas clouds and make them glow, he explained. Nebulous star-forming regions like M16 are the interstellar neon signs that say, We just made a bunch of massive stars here.

When scientists first stumbled upon the Pillars of Creation, it was the first time anyone had directly seen observational evidence of the erosionary process, not just radiation but the mechanical stripping away of the gas, according to NASA.

But despite its name, the 2014 images now suggest the structure should instead be referred to as the Pillars of Destruction.

See the original post:
Hubbles Pillars of Creation, as spectacular as ever