New Views of the Pillars of Creation: Hubble's Universe Unfiltered

New Views of the Pillars of Creation
Presented by Dr. Frank Summers, Space Telescope Science Institute

One of Hubble's most famous images was taken in 1995. The iconic "Pillars of Creation" shows the tall and beautiful gaseous pillar structures that can form inside star-forming regions. Within these dark clouds, stars are being born. Hubble kicked off its 25th anniversary year in 2015 with some images that used its improved cameras to revisit these beautiful pillars. This larger, higher resolution, and expanded wavelength examination uncovered new details, new features, and new perspectives on a classic image.

Hubble press release:
Hubble Goes High Def to Revisit the Iconic 'Pillars of Creation'

Show Notes:

-- Most will remember that there was an initial flaw in Hubble's mirror that was corrected in 1993. After that repair mission, it took some time for the public to recognize just how amazing Hubble's views of the universe really were. The 'Pillars of Creation' image, released in November 1995, was a watershed in that regard. The image was shown on television news and reproduced in newspapers and magazines everywhere. The widespread attention helped certify Hubble's status to the public as the pre-eminent observatory of our time.

-- The "teapot" in Sagittarius is not the full constellation. It is a star pattern, called an "asterism," within the larger collection of connected stars that makes up the entire constellation. One can search online to see the full Sagittarius constellation as it depicts the archer. A similar asterism is the Big Dipper, which is a star pattern within the constellation of Ursa Major.

-- The visible and infrared views of astronomical objects are generally similar enough that one can identify common structures between the views. When using other wavelengths, like X-rays or radio waves, it can be very hard to identify how the two different wavelength views correspond. Astronomers must record the exact sky coordinates of an image in order to be able to precisely compare against views by other telescopes and in other wavelengths.

[FrankSummers]

Hi, this is Dr Frank Summers. I hope you have enjoyed this video. We are working to produce more of these this year. Please tag me when asking questions and I will try to answer them here, on my social media posts, or on my blog (which I will also try to do more on this year). Thank you for your polite feedback.

[coffeecup]

Frank: Tiny little pillars!
Tiny little pillars: *_are bigger than our solar system by an unfathomable proportion_*

[ggi]

Those pillars look breathtaking. So refreshing to hear all of this awesome science stuff from a real Astronomer who actually knows what he's saying, as opposed to some schmuck on YouTube pretending to be scientist. Too many of those out there...

[Healitnow]

Hubble has been a great improvement and a credit to astronomy. It is one of the best educational ideas that ever came true.

[tawnkuimi-uru]

These images are so mind blowing to me. To think that they were taken 19 years apart and that in that long of time, (on an Earthly scale of time that is), that literally nothing has changed. We here on Earth think of expanding gas clouds to be something very fluid and almost instantaneously dissipated, but the enormity of these "Pillars of Creation" is beyond most of our comprehension. Loved this video. Thank you.

[philrabe]

No other machine has expanded our understanding of the size and age of our Universe as expansively. I can't wait to see what the JWT will add to Hubel's legacy of on orbit astronomy!

[Acts--wnzq]

Thank you Mr. Summers for showing us and a easy to understand explanation of what we see! Hope you are still sharing these on you tube. Very educational!

[vXIRNMANXv]

Those infrared photos are my favorite, it's amazing how the stars shine.

[chrisnizer]

Seeing those pillars with stars that appear absolutely tiny in comparison certainly makes it easier to see how quasars and the like obtain the huge amount of matter they need to form. That is a positively mind blowing amount of "stuff." Those stars appear to be little pin size dots of light. Thank you for all the amazing images.

[gustavopessacq]

Just what I was looking for, detailed explanations of the Hubble pictures that we see in so many documentaries. This video is clear, precise and well presented. Thank you very much for this work, I will watch all other videos from this channel.

[thewaterslesstraveled]

I giggled when he said Webb was going to launch in 2018 😂

[princeedmunddukeofedinburg]

More of these series, please! and ofc amazing explanation, thanks.

[brucewilkinson]

Just another moment of breathtaking beauty!

[carolynjoyner]

T.his presentation is more interesting than anything I’ve seen before. My mind is blown by the ex0lanations you give as well as the photographs shown. Thank you so much for this …

[DatFaceDoe]

I'm looking for wall size of this ... Amazing! Thank you Dr.

[irenajankowski]

My husband a PhD level scholar got me interested in science, astronomy is the most exciting of fields. Matching those images with his long talks during our long drives (sometimes too long) makes it even more exciting.

[Johnnyp]

Since I was born in the early 50's we have looked deep into space and explored most of the solar system. I hope I live long enough to see a Moon and Mars base being constructed.

[Zhyrca]

That blew my mind. I feel I've learned a bunch today.

[AthenaSchroedinger]

Absolutely loved this! Looking forward to seeing more!

[terratec]

Absolutely fascinating. And thanks for the image downloads. They're amazing.