The Eagle Nebula (M16): Peering Into the Pillars Of Creation(Forwarded)

Megan Watzke
Chandra X-ray Center, Cambridge, Mass.
(Phone: 617/496-7998)

For Release: February 15, 2007

The Eagle Nebula (M16): Peering Into the Pillars Of Creation
[http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2007/m16/]

A new look at the famous "Pillars of Creation" with NASA's Chandra X-ray
Observatory has allowed astronomers to peer inside the dark columns of gas
and dust. This penetrating view of the central region of the Eagle Nebula
reveals how much star formation is happening inside these iconic
structures.

The Chandra data shows bright X-ray sources in this field, most of which
are young stars. In this image, red, green, and blue represent low,
medium, and high energy X-rays. The Chandra data have been overlaid on the
Hubble Space Telescope image to show the context of these X-ray data.

Very few X-ray sources are found in the pillars themselves. This suggests
that the Eagle Nebula may be past its star-forming prime, since young
stars are usually bright X-ray sources. However, there are two X-ray
objects found near the tips of the pillars. One is a young star about 4 or
5 times as massive as the Sun, visible as the blue source near the tip of
the pillar on the left. The other is a lower mass star near the top of the
other pillar that is so faint it is not visible in the composite image.

The Chandra observations did not detect X-rays from any of the so-called
evaporating gaseous globules, or EGGs. The EGGs are dense, compact pockets
of interstellar gas where stars are believed to be forming. The lack of
X-rays from these objects may mean that most of the EGGs do not contain
enshrouded stars. However, infrared observations have shown that 11 of the
73 EGGs contain infant stellar objects and 4 of these are massive enough
to form a star. The stars embedded in these 4 EGGs might be so young that
they have not generated X-rays yet and one of them (E42) -- estimated to
have about the mass of the Sun -- could represent one of the earliest
stages of evolution of our nearest star. The Sun was likely born in a
region like the Pillars of Creation.

The pillars and the few stars forming inside them are the last vestiges of
star formation in the Eagle Nebula, also known as M16, which peaked
several million years earlier. This contrasts strongly with the active
star forming regions in other clusters such as NGC 2024, where Chandra
sees a dense cluster of embedded young stars.

The results were published in the January 1st issue of The Astrophysical
Journal and the research team, led by Jeffrey Linsky of the University of
Colorado, includes Marc Gagne and Anna Mytyk (West Chester University),
Mark McCaughrean (University of Exeter) and Morten Andersen (University of
Arizona).