Poster Version
This image composite highlights the pillars of the Eagle nebula, as seen
in infrared light by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope (bottom) and visible
light by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (top insets).
The top right inset focuses on the three famous pillars, dubbed the
"Pillars of Creation," which were photographed by Hubble in 1995. Hubble's
optical view shows the dusty towers in exquisite detail, while Spitzer's
infrared eyes penetrate through the thick dust, revealing ghostly
transparent structures. The same effect can be seen for the pillar
outlined in the top left box.
In both cases, Spitzer's view exposes newborn stars that were hidden
inside the cocoon-like pillars, invisible to Hubble. These stars were
first uncovered by the European Space Agency's Infrared Satellite
Observatory. In the Spitzer image, two embedded stars are visible at the
tip and the base of the left pillar, while one star can be seen at the tip
of the tallest pillar on the right.
