Pillars of Creation Facts for Kids

The Pillars of Creation!

The Pillars of Creation are towering columns of cold gas and dust inside the Eagle Nebula (M16), about 6,500 light-years away. They were made famous by the Hubble Space Telescope's iconic 1995 photograph — one of the most recognized images in all of astronomy!

Impossibly Tall!

The tallest pillar stretches about 4 light-years from base to tip — that's roughly the distance from the Sun to the nearest star! If you could drive a car at highway speed, it would take you over 40 million years to travel from one end to the other.

A Stellar Nursery!

Deep inside the pillars, dense pockets of gas are collapsing under their own gravity to form brand-new stars called protostars. The Pillars of Creation are literally a baby star factory — some of the youngest stars in the galaxy are being born right here!

Slowly Disappearing!

Intense ultraviolet radiation from nearby hot young stars is slowly boiling away the pillars' outer layers — a process called photoevaporation. The pillars are disappearing at a rate of about 70 billion kilometers per year! In about 3 million years, they'll be completely gone.

Evaporating Gaseous Globules!

At the tips of the pillars are dense, dark knobs called EGGs — Evaporating Gaseous Globules. Each EGG is a cocoon where a brand-new star is forming! Some are about the size of our entire solar system.

Home in the Eagle!

The Pillars sit inside the Eagle Nebula (Messier 16), a vast region of star formation spanning about 70 light-years across. The Eagle Nebula gets its name because the nebula's shape resembles an eagle with outstretched wings!

Made of Molecules!

The pillars are made primarily of molecular hydrogen (H\u2082) and dust. The dust grains are incredibly tiny — smaller than smoke particles — but there are so many of them that they block the light from stars behind the pillars, making them look dark.

The Famous Photo!

The original 1995 Hubble photo was taken by astronomers Jeff Hester and Paul Scowen. It became one of the most iconic space images ever, appearing on everything from postage stamps to album covers. A sharper version was captured in 2014 for Hubble's 25th anniversary!

Webb's Infrared Eyes!

In 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope photographed the Pillars in infrared light, revealing newborn stars hidden inside the dusty columns that Hubble couldn't see! The infrared view makes the pillars look almost ghostly and transparent.

Already Gone?!

Some scientists think a supernova may have already destroyed the Pillars about 6,000 years ago — but because they're 6,500 light-years away, the light showing their destruction hasn't reached us yet! We might be looking at a ghost.

Jets of Fire!

Protostars forming inside the pillars shoot out powerful jets of hot gas called Herbig-Haro objects. These jets can extend for light-years, blasting through the surrounding gas at hundreds of kilometers per second like cosmic fire hoses!

Cold Inside, Hot Outside!

The gas inside the pillars is incredibly cold — about -250\u00b0C (just 23 degrees above absolute zero). But the surface being blasted by starlight is heated to over 10,000\u00b0C! That's a temperature difference of over 10,000 degrees in a thin boundary layer.

The Finger of God!

The tallest pillar is sometimes called "The Finger of God" because it appears to be pointing upward into the cosmos. Its dramatic shape is sculpted by the intense radiation from the star cluster NGC 6611 at the center of the Eagle Nebula.

Denser Than You'd Think!

Even though the pillars look solid, the gas is still incredibly thin — about 4,000 molecules per cubic centimeter. That's a million times denser than the surrounding hot nebula, but still a million billion times less dense than the air you breathe!

In the Serpent's Tail!

The Eagle Nebula is located in the constellation Serpens (the Serpent) — specifically in Serpens Cauda, the serpent's tail. On a clear summer night from the Northern Hemisphere, you can spot it with binoculars near the constellation Sagittarius!

Magnetic Pillars!

The pillars have their own magnetic fields that help support them against collapse. These magnetic field lines run along the length of each pillar like invisible scaffolding, slowing down the photoevaporation process and helping the pillars last longer.

Glowing Edges!

The edges of the pillars glow bright green (from oxygen) and red (from hydrogen) as the gas is heated and ionized by ultraviolet starlight. This bright rim is called a "bright rim" or "ionization front" — it's where the pillar is actively being eaten away!

Heavy Clouds!

Each pillar contains enough gas to form hundreds of stars like our Sun! The total mass of the three main pillars is estimated at about 200 solar masses — that's 200 times the mass of our entire Sun.

Sculpted by Wind!

The pillar shapes are carved by stellar winds — streams of charged particles blowing from the hot young stars of NGC 6611 at millions of kilometers per hour. Denser clumps of gas resist the wind, creating the tall column shapes behind them like rocks in a stream.

Stars Making Stars!

The radiation destroying the pillars is also triggering new star formation! As the radiation compresses the gas at the pillars' edges, it can push clumps past the tipping point where gravity takes over and a new star begins to form. Destruction and creation happen side by side!