explanation
In visible light, the whole thing looks like an eagle [ http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4639730101975502715&q=eagle&hl=en ]. The region was captured recently in unprecedented detail in infrared light [ http://imagers.gsfc.nasa.gov/ems/infrared.html ] by the robotic orbiting Spitzer Space Telescope [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spitzer_space_telescope ] (SSC). Shown above [ http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/releases/ssc2007-01/ssc2007-01a.shtml ], the infrared image allows observers to peer through normally opaque dust [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060409.html ] and so better capture the full complexity of the Eagle Nebula [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060226.html ] star forming region. In particular, the three famous pillars [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050424.html ] near the image center are seen bathed in dust likely warmed by a supernova [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernova ] explosion. The warm dust is digitally assigned the false color of red. Also visible, near the bottom of the image, is ten light-year long pillar sometimes dubbed the Fairy [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050425.html ] of Eagle Nebula. The greater Eagle emission nebula [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/emission_nebulae.html ], tagged M16, lies about 6500 light years [ http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/questions/question19.html ] away, spans about 20 light-years, and is visible with binoculars [ http://www.birdwatching.com/optics/binoculars1.html#How Binoculars Work ] toward the constellation [ http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/extra/constellations.html ] of Serpens [ http://www.astronomical.org/portal/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=76 ].
Explanation
false