Pillars of Creation

I saw a cool picture on Facebook of these space clouds. I found the picture on google by searching "cool space clouds" and found out that they are not actually clouds. They are called The Pillars of Creation and they are formed from the collection of matter in space that is found between the star systems in a galaxy.

The Pillars of Creation in the visible spectrum taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

These "pillars" are part of the nebula called the Eagle Nebula, about 7,000 light years from Earth in the constellation Serpens. The Eagle Nebula (aka Messier 16 or M16, and as NGC 6611)was discovered by Jean-Philippe de Cheseaux in 1745-1746. This picture was taken in April of 1995 by Jeff Hester and Paul Scowen. 

In 2007, astronomers revisited this area using the Spitzer Space Telescope. They took mid-infrared images and they saw that a supernova had exploded in that area about 6000 years ago. They believe that the shock wave from the explosion may have already reached the Pillars of Creation region and destroyed them. However, since Eagle Nebula is about 7,000 light years away, the light will not reach Earth for about another 1,000 years. I did the long calculation for fun and my answer works out!

7,000ly * 9.4605284*10^15m = 6.6223*10^19m

6.6223*10^19m / 3.0*10^8m/s = 2.20746*10^11s

2.20746*10^11s = 6,995.3 years6,995.3 - 6000 = 995 years

So we won't be around to see the destruction of these pillars, but at least we were able to witness and admire their beauty while they are still around!

Sources: 
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Herschel/A_New_View_of_an_Icon#subhead5

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_Nebula

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pillars_of_Creation