NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Dr. Jennifer Wiseman explains the Hubble Space Telescope's view of the Pillars of Creation, located in the Eagle Nebula.
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Producer, Director & Editor: James Leigh
Director of Photography: James Ball
Executive Producers: James Leigh & Matthew Duncan
Production & Post: Origin Films
Video Credits:
Hubble Space Telescope Animation
ESA/Hubble (M. Kornmesser & L. L. Christensen)
Light Echo Animation
NASA/ESA/Hubble - M. Kornmesser
Music Credits:
"Transcode" by Lee Groves [PRS], and Peter George Marett [PRS] via Universal Production Music
“Transitions” by Ben Niblett [PRS] and Jon Cotton [PRS] via Atmosphere Music Ltd [PRS] and Universal Production Music.
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Producer, Director & Editor: James Leigh
Director of Photography: James Ball
Executive Producers: James Leigh & Matthew Duncan
Production & Post: Origin Films
Video Credits:
Hubble Space Telescope Animation
ESA/Hubble (M. Kornmesser & L. L. Christensen)
Light Echo Animation
NASA/ESA/Hubble - M. Kornmesser
Music Credits:
"Transcode" by Lee Groves [PRS], and Peter George Marett [PRS] via Universal Production Music
“Transitions” by Ben Niblett [PRS] and Jon Cotton [PRS] via Atmosphere Music Ltd [PRS] and Universal Production Music.
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TechTranscript
00:00This is a region of interstellar space, gas and dust in our own Milky Way galaxy that's
00:14part of a nebula we call the Eagle Nebula, 6,500 light years away from us in the Serpent's
00:21constellation. These prominent and now famous pillars are sometimes called the
00:29pillars of creation because they're actually a region where new stars are
00:33still forming. So what we can see in this region is the effects of stars that have
00:40already formed lighting up and ionizing this background wispy gas and the
00:45environment where new stars are still in the process of forming buried in the
00:50dense remaining columns of dust.
00:56We see some of these hot spots that are right in the region of a protostar that's
01:01forming at the tips of these columns and then down through the columns. There's one
01:07there and another one down here. As you look carefully you can see these regions
01:11where the protostars as they coalesce are heating the surrounding dust cocoon right
01:17around them. But in this visible light picture we can't see into the dust to
01:22really see what's going on deep inside the cloud.
01:29This is also an image of the Eagle Nebula taken with the Hubble Space Telescope.
01:35However, this image is dramatically different from what we see in visible light
01:40because the infrared channel on the wide field camera 3 allows us to peer
01:45through a lot of that dust that blocks the visible light. And so instead of seeing
01:50all the structure of the pillars that the visible light image allows us to see, this
01:56infrared view allows us to see through some of that dust and we can actually see
02:01into those pillars. And then you'll also notice we see a lot more stars over the
02:06whole field because the whole field has a lot of dust but we can see through it
02:11with this infrared view. And so we see many stars in the field that are already
02:15formed. We see regions where new stars are coalescing and heating up within these
02:20dense pillars and it gives us information that complements what we can see in the
02:25visible light image.
02:26The whole region is somewhat ethereal because we see dust, we see gas, we see this lit up
02:38region in the background, symphony of color and structure and interaction going on in this
02:45region. I think it's why we never really get tired of looking at it.
02:56So
03:03here's to see the station.
03:04So
03:07here's the station.
03:09There's a station.
03:10It's only there's a secret.
03:11There's also a station.
03:13The station and the station and the station.
03:14So
03:18here's the station.
03:19Here's the station.
03:22This station there's a little bit of space.