14 DAY TRIAL // Just yesterday, astronomers with NASA released a brand new image of the Pillars of Creation, which are basically three ginormous columns of cold gas resting next to a cluster of young, massive stars in the Eagle Nebula.
The image in question, included in the gallery below, was taken with the help of the Hubble Space Telescope, which was launched back in 1990 and which has been exploring the cosmos ever since.
Mind you, the Hubble Space Telescope is all too familiar with these giant cold gas columns. In fact, it was back in 1995 that it snapped its first picture of them. This other image is available next to the new one.
As one can easily notice, the new picture is wider and sharper than the previous one. Astronomers say that, to obtain this view of the Pillars of Creation, they combined several Hubble Space Telescope exposures.
The massive gas columns measure about 5 light-years in height, Space Telescope Science Institute astronomers say. They are located at a distance of about 6,500 light-years from our planet and are now birthing new stars.
Besides, they are forever losing considerable amounts of the gas that comprises them. Consequently, their shape in the 1995 Hubble Space Telescope image differs ever so slightly to the one shown in the newly obtained picture.
