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By NASA
ESA/Hubble & NASA, K. Noll This newly reprocessed image released on April 18, 2025, provides a new view of an enormous, 9.5-light-year-tall pillar of cold gas and dust. Despite its size, it’s just one small piece of the greater Eagle Nebula, also called Messier 16.
The Eagle Nebula is one of many nebulae in the Milky Way that are known for their sculpted, dusty clouds. Nebulae take on these fantastic shapes when exposed to powerful radiation and winds from infant stars. Regions with denser gas are more able to withstand the onslaught of radiation and stellar winds from young stars, and these dense areas remain as dusty sculptures like the starry pillar shown here.
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Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, K. Noll
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By NASA
Explore Hubble Hubble Home Overview About Hubble The History of Hubble Hubble Timeline Why Have a Telescope in Space? Hubble by the Numbers At the Museum FAQs Impact & Benefits Hubble’s Impact & Benefits Science Impacts Cultural Impact Technology Benefits Impact on Human Spaceflight Astro Community Impacts Science Hubble Science Science Themes Science Highlights Science Behind Discoveries Hubble’s Partners in Science Universe Uncovered Explore the Night Sky Observatory Hubble Observatory Hubble Design Mission Operations Missions to Hubble Hubble vs Webb Team Hubble Team Career Aspirations Hubble Astronauts News Hubble News Social Media Media Resources Multimedia Multimedia Images Videos Sonifications Podcasts e-Books Online Activities Lithographs Fact Sheets Posters Hubble on the NASA App Glossary More 35th Anniversary Online Activities 3 Min Read Hubble Spies Cosmic Pillar in Eagle Nebula
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features a small portion of the Eagle Nebula (Messier 16). Credits:
ESA/Hubble & NASA, K. Noll As part of ESA/Hubble’s 35th anniversary celebrations, the European Space Agency (ESA) is sharing a new image series revisiting stunning, previously released Hubble targets with the addition of the latest Hubble data and new processing techniques.
New images of NGC 346 and the Sombrero Galaxy have already been published. Now, ESA/Hubble is revisiting the Eagle Nebula (originally published in 2005 as part of Hubble’s 15th anniversary celebrations) with new image processing techniques.
Unfurling along the length of the image is a pillar of cold gas and dust that is 9.5 light-years tall. As enormous as this dusty pillar is, it’s just one small piece of the greater Eagle Nebula, also called Messier 16. The name Messier 16 comes from the French astronomer Charles Messier, a comet hunter who compiled a catalog of deep-sky objects that could be mistaken for comets.
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features a towering structure of billowing gas in the Eagle Nebula (Messier 16). The pillar rises 9.5 light-years tall and is 7,000 light-years away from Earth. ESA/Hubble & NASA, K. Noll The name Eagle Nebula was inspired by the nebula’s appearance. The edge of this shining nebula is shaped by dark clouds like this one, giving it the appearance of an eagle spreading its wings.
Not too far from the region pictured here are the famous Pillars of Creation, which Hubble photographed multiple times, with images released in 1995 and 2015.
The heart of the nebula, which is located beyond the edge of this image, is home to a cluster of young stars. These stars have excavated an immense cavity in the center of the nebula, shaping otherworldly pillars and globules of dusty gas. This particular feature extends like a pointing finger toward the center of the nebula and the rich young star cluster embedded there.
The Eagle Nebula is one of many nebulae in the Milky Way that are known for their sculpted, dusty clouds. Nebulae take on these fantastic shapes when exposed to powerful radiation and winds from infant stars. Regions with denser gas are more able to withstand the onslaught of radiation and stellar winds from young stars, and these dense areas remain as dusty sculptures like the starry pillar shown here.
This towering structure of billowing gas and dark, obscuring dust might only be a small portion of the Eagle Nebula, but it is no less majestic in appearance for it. 9.5 light-years tall and 7000 light-years distant from Earth, this dusty sculpture is refreshed with the use of new processing techniques. The new Hubble image is part of ESA/Hubble’s 35th anniversary celebrations. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, K. Noll, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble); Music: Stellardrone – Ascent The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.
Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubble Explore Hubble Eagle Nebula Images and Science
Eagle Nebula Pillar
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Hubble’s Messier Catalog: Messier 16 (Eagle Nebula)
Messier 16, better known as the Eagle Nebula, has provided Hubble with some of its most iconic images.
Embryonic Stars Emerge from Interstellar “Eggs”
Eerie, dramatic Hubble pictures show newborn stars emerging from “eggs” – not the barnyard variety – but rather dense, compact pockets of interstellar gas called evaporating gaseous globules (EGGs).
The Pillars of Creation: A 3D Multiwavelength Exploration
This scientific visualization explores the iconic Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula (Messier 16 or M16) using data from NASA’s Hubble and Webb space telescopes.
Hubble Goes High Def to Revisit the Iconic ‘Pillars of Creation’
Explore hands-on activities, interactive, lesson plans, educator guides, and other downloadable content about this topic.
Location of Hubble images in the Eagle Nebula
This wide-field image of the Eagle Nebula shows the areas Hubble viewed in greater detail with Hubble’s Wide-Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) in 1995 and Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) in 2005.
The Eagle Has Risen: Stellar Spire in the Eagle Nebula
Released in 2005, this Hubble image of a stellar spire was part of Hubble’s 15th anniversary.
Eagle Nebula (M16) Pillar Detail: Portion of Top
Released in 2005, this Hubble image of a stellar spire was part of Hubble’s 15th anniversary.
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Last Updated Apr 18, 2025 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Contact Media Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
Bethany Downer
ESA/Hubble
bethany.downer@esahubble.org
Garching, Germany
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By NASA
ESA/Hubble and NASA, A. Nota, P. Massey, E. Sabbi, C. Murray, M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble) This new image, released on April 4, 2025, showcases the dazzling young star cluster NGC 346. Although both the James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope have released images of NGC 346 previously, this image includes new data and is the first to combine Hubble observations made at infrared, optical, and ultraviolet wavelengths into an intricately detailed view of this vibrant star-forming factory.
Hubble’s exquisite sensitivity and resolution were instrumental in uncovering the secrets of NGC 346’s star formation. Using two sets of observations taken 11 years apart, researchers traced the motions of NGC 346’s stars, revealing them to be spiraling in toward the center of the cluster. This spiraling motion arises from a stream of gas from outside of the cluster that fuels star formation in the center of the turbulent cloud.
Learn more about NGC 346 and the nebula it has shaped.
Image credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA, A. Nota, P. Massey, E. Sabbi, C. Murray, M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble)
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By European Space Agency
The European Space Agency's XMM-Newton is playing a crucial role in investigating the longest and most energetic bursts of X-rays seen from a newly awakened black hole. Watching this strange behaviour unfold in real time offers a unique opportunity to learn more about these powerful events and the mysterious behaviour of massive black holes.
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By NASA
Curiosity Navigation Curiosity Home Mission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates Science Overview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Curiosity Raw Images Images Videos Audio Mosaics More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions Mars Home 3 min read
Sols 4498-4499: Flexing Our Arm Once Again
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Left Navigation Camera on March 30, 2025 — Sol 4496, or Martian day 4,496 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 20:12:48 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech Written by Conor Hayes, Graduate Student at York University
Earth planning date: Monday, March 31, 2025
Planning today began with two pieces of great news. First, our 50-meter drive (about 164 feet) from the weekend plan completed successfully, bringing us oh-so-close to finally driving out of the small canyon that we’ve been traversing through and toward the “boxwork” structures to our southwest. Second, we passed our “Slip Risk Assessment Process” (SRAP), confirming that all six of Curiosity’s wheels are parked firmly on solid ground. Avid readers of this blog will be familiar with last week’s SRAP challenges, which prevented us from using the rover’s arm for the entire week. With a green light on SRAP, we were finally able to put our suite of contact science instruments back to work today.
The arm gets to work early on the first sol of this plan, with an APXS integration on “Los Osos,” a bedrock target in our workspace, after it has been cleared of the ubiquitous Martian dust by DRT. The rest of our arm activities consist of a series of MAHLI observations later in the afternoon, both of Los Osos and “Black Star Canyon.”
Of course, just because we managed to get contact science in this plan doesn’t mean we’re letting our remote sensing instruments take a break. In fact, we have more than two hours of remote sensing, split between the two sols and the two science teams (Geology and Mineralogy [GEO] and Atmosphere and Environment [ENV]). GEO will be using Mastcam to survey both the highs and the lows of the terrain, with mosaics of “Devil’s Gate” (some stratigraphy in a nearby ledge) and some small troughs close to the rover. We’ll also be getting even more Mastcam images of “Gould Mesa,” an imaging target in many previous plans, as we continue to drive past it. ChemCam gets involved with a LIBS observation of “Fishbowls,” which will also be imaged by Mastcam, a post-drive AEGIS, and two RMI mosaics of Gould Mesa and “Torote Bowl,” which was also imaged over the weekend.
ENV’s activities are fairly typical for this time of year as Curiosity monitors the development of the Aphelion Cloud Belt (ACB) with several Navcam cloud movies, as well as seasonal changes in the amount of dust in and above Gale with Navcam line-of-sight observations and Mastcam taus. We’ll also be taking a Navcam dust devil movie to see if we can catch any cold-weather wind-driven dust movement. ENV also filled this plan with their usual set of REMS, RAD, and DAN observations.
The drive planned today is significantly shorter than the one over the weekend, at just about 10 meters (about 33 feet). This is because we’re driving up a small ridge, which limits our ability to see what’s on the other side. Although our rover knows how to keep itself safe, we still prefer not to drive through terrain that we can’t see in advance, if it can be avoided. Once we’ve got a better eye on what lies in front of us, we will hopefully be able to continue our speedy trek toward the boxwork structures.
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