Warning: This page uses Cascading Style Sheets. We recommend you upgrade to a current version of your favourite browser.

UCL Homepage

M16 NEBULA

Click for full size logo

M16

This shows part of M16, the "Eagle Nebula", a nearby star-forming region in the constellation Serpens.

The "pillars" consist of particularly dense clouds of hydrogen molecules and cosmic dust.

The nebula is bathed in ultraviolet light from nearby hot, young stars, which slowly erodes the pillars.

As the pillars are eroded, they reveal smaller and denser clumps of gas, containing embryonic stars.

Click here for more information from a NASA website


A wiggly line that means nothing at all except to break the page up a bit

Page last updated on 8 December 2000 . UCL is not reponsible for the content of external sites. 
Comments/enquiries: a.wolff@ucl.ac.uk