APOD: Star Formation in the Eagle Nebula (2022 Mar 14)

[APOD Robot]

Star Formation in the Eagle Nebula

Explanation: Where do stars form? One place, star forming regions known as "EGGs", are being uncovered at the end of this giant pillar of gas and dust in the Eagle Nebula (M16). Short for evaporating gaseous globules, EGGs are dense regions of mostly molecular hydrogen gas that fragment and gravitationally collapse to form stars. Light from the hottest and brightest of these new stars heats the end of the pillar and causes further evaporation of gas and dust -- revealing yet more EGGs and more young stars. This featured picture was created from exposures spanning over 30 hours with the Earth-orbiting Hubble Space Telescope in 2014, and digitally processed with modern software by experienced volunteers in Argentina. Newborn stars will gradually destroy their birth pillars over the next 100,000 years or so -- if a supernova doesn't destroy them first.

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[Alex_515]

What an extraordinary image !

[orin stepanek]

Star factory!

Love this photo!

Paper shredder in action!

[C0ppert0p]

I am blown away by the amount of detail they were able to capture. Being able to render the subtle variations in the outflows of gas and dust is extraordinary.

[Ann]

Star formation in the Eagle Nebula. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble; Processing & Copyright: Ignacio Diaz Bobillo & Diego Gravinese

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Sharp contours and rounded shapes (in red) and
evaporation of gas (in white).

What I find so remarkable about these pillars is their shape, with sharply delineated but softly rounded contours, sitting in a "sea of evaporating gases". In my sort of annotated image at right, I tried to bring out the "sharp but soft" contours (in red) and the evaporating gases (in white).

We find these shapes wherever there are dusty nebulas suffering the onslaught of ultraviolet light from hot massive stars.

NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. Credit: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

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A starforming dust pillar in the Carina Nebula. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, N. Smith (U. California, Berkeley) et al., and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

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Speaking about starforming pillars of gas and dust, the pillar in the Carina Nebula is a perfect example. The two jets from the top of the pillar come from a very young star in the process of forming.

These pillars really are in so many places. You realize, don't you, that the Horsehead Nebula is a pillar? And the Cone Nebula?

Pillars in the NGC 3603 nebula. NASA, ESA, R. O'Connell et al.

Pillars in the NGC 3603 nebula. NASA, ESA, R. O'Connell et al.

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Two of my favorite pillars are the ones in the NGC 3603 nebula. To me they look like two men having a conversation. Ah, pareidolia!

And I'm still scratching my head over the fantastic shapes of these pillars. The sharp contours, the rounded forms. Amazing!

Ann

[ignacio_db]

Hi,

I did a similar processing of the Mystic Mountain HST dataset, which also clearly shows evaporating gases around its contour.

Ignacio

[AVAO]

Hi,

I did a similar processing of the Mystic Mountain HST dataset, which also clearly shows evaporating gases around its contour.

Ignacio

Hi Ignacio,

Your pictures are incredibly good and detailed. What kind of software do you work with?

Jac

[AVAO]

We find these shapes wherever there are dusty nebulas suffering the onslaught of ultraviolet light from hot massive stars.

Source: Jac Berne (flickr)

That's right. Trumpler 14 is an open cluster with a diameter of six light-years, located within the inner regions of the Carina Nebula, approximately 8,980 light-years from Earth. I think, that's the source.

[Ann]

The Dark Tower in Scorpius and great cluster NGC 6231. Photo: Gerald Rhemann.

The Dark Tower in Scorpius is another of my favorite pillars. It's being sculpted by magnificent cluster NGC 6231. (Even though Trumpler 14, which sculpts the Mystic Mountain in Carina, seen in AVAO's post, is even more magnificent.)

Ann

[Guest]

Hi Ignacio,

Your pictures are incredibly good and detailed. What kind of software do you work with?

Jac

Thank you! I use Pixinsight mostly, which has a very accurate RL deconvolution implementation, among many other tools.

Ignacio

[Chris Peterson]

Hi Ignacio,

Your pictures are incredibly good and detailed. What kind of software do you work with?

Jac

Thank you! I use Pixinsight mostly, which has a very accurate RL deconvolution implementation, among many other tools.

Ignacio

I think almost all serious astroimagers are using PixInsight these days for most of their processing. Nothing else really comes close in terms of processing power and tools.

[davidreitter@yahoo.com]

Instead of everything flying through space into infinity , maybe everything is "orbiting something" !

[AVAO]

Hi Ignacio,

Your pictures are incredibly good and detailed. What kind of software do you work with?

Jac

Thank you! I use Pixinsight mostly, which has a very accurate RL deconvolution implementation, among many other tools.

Ignacio

All clear.

I also agree with Chris. PixInsight is a great piece of software where you nearly find everything in terms of functionality that an astroimagers heart could wish for.