M16: 创生之柱

2024年10月22日

M16: Pillars of Star Creation
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Processing: Diego Pisano

Explanation: These dark pillars may look destructive, but they are creating stars. This pillar-capturing picture of the Eagle Nebula combines visible light exposures taken with the Hubble Space Telescope with infrared images taken with the James Webb Space Telescope to highlight evaporating gaseous globules (EGGs) emerging from pillars of molecular hydrogen gas and dust. The giant pillars are light years in length and are so dense that interior gas contracts gravitationally to form stars. At each pillar’s end, the intense radiation of bright young stars causes low density material to boil away, leaving stellar nurseries of dense EGGs exposed. The Eagle Nebula, associated with the open star cluster M16, lies about 7000 light years away.

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M16: 创生之柱
影像提供: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; 影像处理: Diego Pisano

说明: 这些黝黑的柱体虽然看起来支离破碎，但它们正在形成恒星。这幅整合哈勃太空望远镜可见光及韦伯太空镜红外光数据的鹰状星云影像，突显了许多从分子氢气与尘埃 柱曝露出来，名为“蒸发中气态云球（EGGs；星蛋）”的天体。这些长度约数光年的庞大柱体，其密度是如此之高，以至于内部的气体发生重力塌缩形成新的恒星。而在每根柱体的顶端，年轻亮星发出强烈的辐射，把云气柱内较低密度的物质蒸发掉，留下了许多内有致密星蛋的恒星育婴室。鹰状星云及它内部的疏散星团 M16，距离地球约有7,000光年远。

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