SPACE.com -- Kitt Peak Captures New Pic of Eagle Nebula

This wide-field image of the Eagle Nebula was taken at the National Science Foundation's 0.9-meter telescope on Kitt Peak with the NOAO Mosaic CCD camera. Located in the constellation of Serpens, the Serpent, the Eagle Nebula is a very luminous open cluster of stars surrounded by dust and gas. The three pillars at the center of the image, made famous in an image by the Hubble Space Telescope, are being sculpted by the intense radiation from the hot stars in the cluster.

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	Kitt Peak Captures New Pic of Eagle Nebula By SPACE.com Staff posted: 01:18 pm ET 13 June 2002

Astronomers have captured a broader view of the classic Hubble Space Telescope image, the iconic "Pillars of Creation"

Astronomers have captured a broader view of a classic Hubble Space Telescope image, the iconic "Pillars of Creation".

The wide-field image of the Eagle Nebula was taken at the National Science Foundation's 0.9-meter telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona. The astronomy team used the National Optical Astronomy Observatory Mosaic CCD camera to take the picture.

Located in the constellation of Serpens, the Serpent, the Eagle Nebula is a very luminous open cluster of stars surrounded by dust and gas. The Eagle Nebula, also called M16, is a classic star forming region, a place roughly 7,000 light-years from Earth where gas and dust are thought to feed the birth of new stars.

Several hot young stars born in the process now live just outside the Pillars, physically sculpting the colorful structures with intense ultraviolet light.