SCIENCE IN THE NEWS DAILY
Herschel Telescope Revisits Cosmic Classic
from BBC News Online
Europe's Herschel space telescope has produced a majestic new version of a classic astronomical target--the Eagle Nebula (also called M16). This dense region of gas and dust some 6,500 light-years from Earth hosts copious numbers of bright new stars.
Radiation from these objects is sculpting the clouds of gas and dust, producing in places great columns and curtains of material. The picture is being featured on the BBC's Stargazing Live series.
Brian Cox and Dara O'Briain are presenting the popular programmes this week from Jodrell Bank radio observatory in Cheshire. Look just below the centre of the image and you will see the columns that were famously dubbed the "Pillars of Creation" when they were pictured by the Hubble telescope in 1995. But Herschel and Hubble see distinctly different things in the nebula.
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