The Pillars of Creation - 1995 and 2015 comparison
Date: 04 January 2015
Satellite: Hubble Space Telescope
Depicts: Eagle Nebula, M16, Messier 16
Copyright: See below
This image compares two views of the Eagle Nebula's Pillars of Creation taken with Hubble 20 years apart.
The new image, on the left, captures almost exactly the same region as in the 1995, on the right. However, the newer image uses Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3, installed in 2009, to capture light from glowing oxygen, hydrogen, and sulphur with greater clarity.
Having both images allows astronomers to study how the structure of the pillars is changing over time.
Credit
WFC3: NASA, ESA/Hubble and the Hubble Heritage Team
WFPC2: NASA, ESA/Hubble, STScI, J. Hester and P. Scowen (Arizona State University)
Last Update: 1 September 2019
