M16

𝐌𝟏𝟔 (𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐄𝐑 𝟏𝟔) 𝐈𝐒 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝗪𝐍 𝐁𝐘 𝐀𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐔𝐑 𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐏𝐇𝐎𝐓𝐎𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐏𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐀𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐀𝐆𝐋𝐄 𝐍𝐄𝐁𝐔𝐋𝐀. This well-observed area of the night sky is a large cloud of gas and dust where new stars are born. When you take a look at the wispy glow of this nebula through an astronomical telescope or binoculars, you are witnessing a stellar object that is approximately 7000 light-years away.⁣

⁣

The newborn stars in the Eagle Nebula are very hot, which illuminate M16’s hydrogen gas as seen in the Pillars of Creation, made famous by the Hubble Space Telescope. These intense pillars are slowly evaporating under the intense glare of the nearby massive, newborn stars. 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐀𝐑𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐀𝐑 𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐋𝐘 𝐒𝐌𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝗪𝐈𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐍𝐄𝐁𝐔𝐋𝐀 𝐈𝐓𝐒𝐄𝐋𝐅, 𝐁𝐔𝐓 𝐈𝐍 𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐔𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘, 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐋𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐍 𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐑𝐄 𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐀𝐑 𝐒𝐘𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐌⁣

⁣

The Eagle Nebula is a bright (magnitude 6.2) emission nebula in the constellation Serpens.It contains several active star-forming regions of gas and dust, and is one of the brightest nebulae in our night sky. “The Eagle” can easily be identified in long-exposure images of the Milky Way⁣