Eagle Nebula
What is Eagle Nebula?
Nebulae· Distance 7,000 ly. The star factory made famous by Hubble's "Pillars of Creation" — gas columns four light-years tall where new stars are forming, lit by a young cluster. It sits in the summer Milky Way near the tail of Serpens.
📍 Visible from where you are right now — computed in your browser
bearing · altitude · rise time · best time tonight
Where Eagle Nebula is in your sky right now: https://nowsky.org/solar/sky?sel=eagle nebula — location and time set automatically, no login.
Its place in the sky
A nebula, in the direction of Scutum, spanning about 35 arcminutes of sky — 1.1 times the width of the full Moon.
Distance and scale
| Distance | ~7,000 ly |
|---|---|
| Size | ~70 ly across |
| Type | emission nebula + open cluster |
| Constellation | Serpens (Cauda) |
Figures are representative approximations. Source: compiled from NASA and IAU public data.
Discovery and name
Made famous by Hubble's 1995 "Pillars of Creation"; the pillars may already have been destroyed by a supernova.
Frequently asked
- How far is Eagle Nebula from Earth?
- ~7,000 ly.
- What kind of object is Eagle Nebula?
- emission nebula + open cluster.
- Where in the sky is Eagle Nebula?
- In the direction of Scutum.
- Where is Eagle Nebula in the sky right now?
- Open the sky view for your location and time and it shows the position in the sky right now.
Are the Pillars of Creation already gone?
Spitzer's infrared observations in 2007 caught a clump of hot dust near the Pillars of Creation, and the interpretation offered was a supernova shock wave bearing down on the pillars. By that reckoning the pillars had already collapsed 6,000 years ago, and at 7,000 light-years we would go on seeing the old view for another thousand. The story spread widely, but later checks found the evidence for a supernova remnant weak, and it is no longer taken as established.
What is certain is that the pillars are slowly being eroded. When Hubble re-photographed them in 2014, twenty years on, the jets of gas at their tips had grown a little, and Webb's 2022 infrared image revealed newborn stars glowing red at the tips. The sculptors are the ultraviolet light and winds of the young cluster above, and at that rate the pillars vanish within a few million years. Supernova or not, the Pillars of Creation are a passing view.
The nebula in depth
The Eagle Nebula (M16) pairs a young open cluster with the glowing cloud that gave birth to it. Inside a gas cloud roughly 70 light-years wide, stars only one to two million years old pour out ultraviolet light that makes the surrounding hydrogen glow red. The name comes from the dark dust silhouette that resembles an eagle with outstretched wings.
Hubble's 1995 image of the "Pillars of Creation" became the most reproduced astronomical photograph of the century. Each pillar stands about four light-years tall, tipped with finger-like knots of gas that will become stars. In 2022 the James Webb Space Telescope re-imaged the pillars in infrared, revealing newborn stars hidden inside the dust.
In the Sky view, look toward the summer evening sky above the Sagittarius teapot, near the tail of Serpens. The 6th-magnitude cluster shows in binoculars, but the nebula itself needs a dark sky and a telescope. The Omega Nebula (M17) lies just below it, so the two can be compared in one field.
Related
Figures are representative approximations. Simulated positions use J2000 mean elements.