Posted on 10/15/2015 12:07:18 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Explanation: A star cluster around 2 million years young surrounded by natal clouds of dust and glowing gas, M16 is also known as The Eagle Nebula. This beautifully detailed image of the region includes cosmic sculptures made famous in Hubble Space Telescope close-ups of the starforming complex. Described as elephant trunks or Pillars of Creation, dense, dusty columns rising near the center are light-years in length but are gravitationally contracting to form stars. Energetic radiation from the cluster stars erodes material near the tips, eventually exposing the embedded new stars. Extending from the ridge of bright emission left of center is another dusty starforming column known as the Fairy of Eagle Nebula. M16 and the Eagle Nebula lie about 7,000 light-years away, an easy target for binoculars or small telescopes in a nebula rich part of the sky toward the split constellation Serpens Cauda (the tail of the snake).
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[Credit and Copyright: Jimmy Walker]
Looks more like Godzilla.........................
If you blow it up really big on your screen, 300%, it looks like Joe Camel!.....................
I’m not seeing the M16. Is the squirrel in the middle holding it?
Just Wow!
Remember, all glory is fleeting!
IN a few thousand years...it will be gone.
Great to look at though a telescope though.
And WAIT! Why isn’t the Free Republic plug the picture of the nebula giving us the finger. That is FROM M16.
Thar be dragons in that picture!
Absolutely Gorgeous!
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