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Astronomy Picture of the Day - M16: A Star Forming Pillar from Webb
APOD.NASA.gov ^ | 6 Dec, 2022 | Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Processing & Copyright: Mehmet Hakan Özsaraç

Posted on 12/06/2022 5:50:10 PM PST by MtnClimber

Explanation: What’s happening inside this interstellar mountain? Stars are forming. The mountain is actually a column of gas and dust in the picturesque Eagle Nebula (M16). A pillar like this is so low in density that you could easily fly though it -- it only appears solid because of its high dust content and great depth. The glowing areas are lit internally by newly formed stars. These areas shine in red and infrared light because blue light is scattered away by intervening interstellar dust. The featured image was captured recently in near-infrared light in unprecedented detail by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), launched late last year. Energetic light, abrasive winds, and final supernovas from these young stars will slowly destroy this stellar birth column over the next 100,000 years.


TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: nasa
To be added or removed from the Astronomy Picture of the Day ping list please send me a request via "Private Reply" (Mail).

For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

1 posted on 12/06/2022 5:50:10 PM PST by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

2 posted on 12/06/2022 5:50:26 PM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: 21stCenturion; 21twelve; 4everontheRight; abb; AFB-XYZ; AFPhys; America_Right; AZ .44 MAG; ...
Pinging the APOD list.

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔


3 posted on 12/06/2022 5:51:14 PM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

These images are stacked up in computer processing from hours-long exposures. The telescope sensors pick up wavelengths beyond human vision and the software converts those wavelengths to pretty but false colors.

There is unfortunately no point in space one could fly to and see anything resembling the Pillars of Creation as we see them online. The most you might see with a human eye is faint smudges of starlight reflecting from the densest parts of the gas clouds.


4 posted on 12/06/2022 6:08:04 PM PST by JustaTech (A mind is a terrible thing)
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To: MtnClimber
Looks like a demonic skull-headed entity doing a double face-palm.

(Maybe I should read less news...)

/Sarc

5 posted on 12/06/2022 6:10:34 PM PST by GaltAdonis
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To: JustaTech

Nevertheless what you see is real. The human eye is just not designed for looking at things of this scale. We can’t eat it and it’s not something we need to run away from.


6 posted on 12/06/2022 6:30:32 PM PST by Telepathic Intruder
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To: GaltAdonis

Looks like a big ol’ whale preparing to breach...


7 posted on 12/06/2022 6:43:49 PM PST by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: MtnClimber

This is what happens when the maid takes off a couple of weeks.


8 posted on 12/06/2022 6:44:10 PM PST by Larry Lucido (Donate! Don't just post clickbait!)
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To: JustaTech

These are things that are real but beyond our ability to sense so we use things we created.....cameras and radios receivers to observe and computers to compile and remember.


9 posted on 12/06/2022 7:58:11 PM PST by Pete from Shawnee Mission ( )
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To: MtnClimber
Thought of this right away!


10 posted on 12/06/2022 8:00:28 PM PST by Pete from Shawnee Mission ( )
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To: Telepathic Intruder

To think our solar system was born in a nebula like this and the gas later drifted off and we go round and round our galaxy encountering other nebula which may spell the end of mankind.


11 posted on 12/07/2022 12:27:44 AM PST by minnesota_bound (Need more money to buy everything now)
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To: MtnClimber

People need to learn about the gas laws...
Gases don’t form into solids...
Fake Science...


12 posted on 12/07/2022 2:02:12 AM PST by Pez149 (Time to stop saying a theory is fact....)
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To: MtnClimber

The “pillars” are always going ‘up’.

What if these are galactic stalactites pointing ‘down’?


13 posted on 12/07/2022 3:50:17 AM PST by Delta 21 (MAGA Republican is my pronoun.)
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To: MtnClimber

Imagine if you were on a planet in that cloud.

You would see practically nothing outside in the sky.................


14 posted on 12/07/2022 5:21:19 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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