January 8, 2015

The new picture of the Pillars of Creation captured by the Hubble Space Telescope compared to the 1995 one (Photo NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)/J. Hester, P. Scowen (Arizona State U.))

In 1995, the Hubble Space Telescope allowed to obtain an image of columns of interstellar gas and dust in the Eagle Nebula. These structures were dubbed the “Pillars of Creation” and the image became one of the most iconic not only among the ones taken by Hubble but among space photographs in general. Now astronomers returned to that region to take a new photograph that, thanks to the updated instrument, is in high definition so it provides details never before seen in visible and infrared light.