Posted on 09/30/2013 4:18:41 AM PDT by lbryce
In 1995, the world was astonished by the image of a group of 4-light-year-tall columns located in the Eagle Nebula, 7,000 light years from here. So unimaginable it was that someone called them the Pillars of Creation.
The only problem is that the pillars didn't really exist. Something had destroyed them more than a thousand years ago.
It's a natural thought. Limited by our understanding of time, we look at objects in space as if they were mountains or the ocean. We genuinely perceive these stellar landscapes as something that is up there fixed, secure, rooted in our reality, the solid foundation of our existence. Some people see the work of gods in all this seemingly immutable show, hence the fantastic name they got. Others just see a cosmic movie set for our humanity's drama.
But our diminutive perception of time, the same that makes us think we are the center of everything, is just an illusion. At the cosmic scale, just like in our individual lives, things move constantly. The architecture of the cosmos is ever changing and scientists know—since 2007, only a few years after they were observed—that these gargantuan structures don't exist anymore.
The Mind-Boggling Story of the Galactic Wonder That Didn't Exist When We Saw It
They were destroyed, blasted by a supernova that happened 6,000 years ago. With our telescopes, we can see the supernova advancing, unstoppable, destroying everything it touches. From that same vantage point, the shockwave has not reached the Pillars of Creation yet. For our senses, they are still there.
In one thousand years, there will be a hell of a show. The shockwave will arrive to the Pillars of Creation and, just like they were created, they will be destroyed once again, obliterated by the force of a dead star. Except that the show really happened a very long time ago.
The Mind-Boggling Story of the Galactic Wonder That Didn't Exist When We Saw It
Rationally, I know why this happens. I know that, since the light has to travel a vast distance, it will arrive after the event has occurred. So the further away something happens, the longer it takes to reach our eyes. I know that, when we look up to the sky, that's the past—seconds, minutes, years, centuries and millennia away.
But that doesn't matter. Every time I think about this, I experience the same sensation. One of awe and humility. And also of wonderment, thinking that my own existence and the existence of the people around me, the people I loved, the people I love, and the people I will love, is happening. Right now, in the middle of this huge storm that is the Universe. And then, my mind and my heart explode.
Clearly, I need a drink.
Above, top, a close-up of the Pillars of Creation as captured by Hubble in 1995. Over these lines, the Pillars of Creation within the Eagle Nebula, captured by the Spitzer telescope in 2007. On the left of that image you can see the supernova that destroyed them, surrounded by a red glow.
But the reality in which the dust sculptures are disappearing is a phenomena much more dramatic, and as the title aptly expresses, mind-boggling, in the manner of the process of which is extraordinarily humbling and awe-inspiring.
The article in Gizmodo written in 2012 expands on just what process is at play regarding the Eagle Nebulae and about just what underlies the disappearance of the dust sculptures that makes the Universe of what we're able to observe and struggle to discern, exponentially much more more complex to hardly wrap our brain around with the puniness of our inadequate capacity that is so very ill-equipped to fathom the wonders of.
Free Republic:September 28, 2013:Astronomy Picture of the Day -- The Fairy of Eagle Nebula
Explanation: The dust sculptures of the Eagle Nebula are evaporating. As powerful starlight whittles away these cool cosmic mountains, the statuesque pillars that remain might be imagined as mythical beasts. Pictured above is one of several striking dust pillars of the Eagle Nebula that might be described as a gigantic alien fairy. This fairy, however, is ten light years tall and spews radiation much hotter than common fire. The greater Eagle Nebula, M16, is actually a giant evaporating shell of gas and dust inside of which is a growing cavity filled with a spectacular stellar nursery currently forming an open cluster of stars. The above image in scientifically re-assigned colors was released in 2005 as part of the fifteenth anniversary celebration of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope.
SunkenCiv, Disappearing Dust Sculptures in the Eagle Nebula Ping
Also stunning is how teelescopes are observational time machines peering into the distant past times of billions of years ago, or the Human eye which can see the Andromeda Galaxy as it appeared about 2 million years ago.
That depends on what the meaning of is, is.
Schrodinger’s Columns?
Actually, it depends on what the meaning of was, was.
I'm sure it's meant as a compliment...
;-\
As a science teacher I would take my students out one night and tell them what they see in the sky is not actually there. And, as they see it, was never what they see.
Simply because the light that left the stars left them millions of years ago and what they are seeing is what was there long ago.
But the whole collective picture, as a whole, was never there. As they see it as a whole. Because the light left different stars at different times. So what they are seeing in one star left 4 million years ago - another star where it was 10 million years ago - and so on for each of the millions of stars they see. Over that time, the stars have moved. In relation to one another.
Mind-boggling. When trying to comprehend the vastness of space & time - and our actual inability to comprehend it - should humble every man who thinks he is something or knows something. In comparison to all that is out there - we know nothing. How arrogant for us to think we know a lot.
Any man who can begin to study the vastness of space & time - or the complexity of the human body & brain - and not believe in God - is a fool. An arrogant fool.
-——they will be destroyed once again-——
Destroyed? not really.
Consider a campfire and the rising flames and smoke, Or perhaps puffy clouds scudding across the sky. What you see is transient, change in action.
Do clouds self destruct? No, the sky is in flux, continuous change.
LOL. Hey, in spacetime, it’s the same thing. Is, was, twillbee.
Gotta go. Nurse is coming with my meds.
Technically, those stars which are individually discernible to the human eye are unlikely to be even 2000 ly distant.
CC
I hear... 
ya!
right. Matter is neither created or destroyed, it just changes its state.
<>
CC
He knows me so well, its like he has been reading my mail.
Tomorrow, he will be a pidgeon.
Deneb is one of the most distant stars you will see with your eye alone. That’s because it’s one of the most luminous stars in the Milky Way galaxy. The exact distance to Deneb is unclear, with estimates ranging from about 1,425 light-years to perhaps as much as 7,000 light-years. Whatever its exact distance, when you gaze at Deneb, know that you are gazing across thousands of light-years of space.
I've got a question regarding the phenomena of the disappearing Pillars of Creation, albeit, a little late as many have seen the article and commented without expectation of return.
If the Pillars of Creation have already been destroyed a thousand years ago, the shock wave and light have as yet not reached the Pillars and as the article stated the Nebulae has already been destroyed destroyed, blasted by the super nova.
Question 1:What recognizable force was it that destroyed, blasted the Nebulae, if not the shockwave?
Question 2:If the supernova destroyed, blasted the Nebulae, apparently very far ahead of the shockwave and light, as they have still as of yet not arrived at the nebulae would that not indicate a speed far much faster than the universal speed limit that is the speed of light? How could the supernova travel at such speeds when it would take light a thousand years to reach the Pillars? What am I missing? Any help, enlightenment on this subject is most appreciated.
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