Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/06/29/newly-released-pillars-of-creation-visualiztion-is-stunning.html
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Typo in title? visualiztion
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You even can view them even with amateur equipment from Earth. The Pillars are 4-5 light years across.
https://www.instagram.com/p/C2-QAeSL4sY/
There speculation that the Pillars were destroyed 6000 years ago, or would be undergoing serious erosion due to a shockwave from a nearby supernova, but we won’t know for another 1000 years (thanks speed of light, you constant pain in the ass).
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I will set a reminder to check.
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Considering the “picture” is really a construct of 3 separate of images, each one focused on the light emission of a specific ionized gas, then visually it looks only vaguely like the visualization to the naked eye. Much like HDR pictures looks “nicer” than regular non-HDR photos, they are not visually what you can actually see. It looks cool, but it kind of irritates me as more and more enhancements are added to our everyday viewing of the world. At least NASA does tell you specifically how the photo was created.
The picture was taken on April 1, 1995 with the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. The color image is constructed from three separate images taken in the light of emission from different types of atoms. Red shows emission from singly-ionized sulfur atoms. Green shows emission from hydrogen. Blue shows light emitted by doubly- ionized oxygen atoms.
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Sadly without a citrus fruit on said head:
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ISWYDT.
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