Different Views of the Eagle Nebula (M16)
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The Eagle Nebula (aka, the "Pillars of Creation") looks very different when viewed through three of NASA's orbiting observatories. The infrared image from the Spitzer Space Telescope and the famous Hubble Space Telescope image show the gas and dust of this star-forming region. The X-ray image from Chandra allows astronomers to peer through the obscuring material, and shows that the Eagle Nebula may be past its prime in terms of making stars. One young star is found inside the pillars, which scientists estimate to be 4 or 5 times more massive than the Sun.
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(Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/U.Colorado/Linsky et al.; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI/ASU/J.Hester & P.Scowen; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSC/N.Flagey & A.Noriega-Crespo)