Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Chandra and Webb teamed up for a new look at the Pillars of Creation, part of the Eagle Nebula. X-ray: NASA/CXO/SAO; Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI; Image processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory celebrated its 25th anniversary in stunning style.
The space agency released 25 never-before-seen images from the space telescope on Tuesday. The views span the universe from nebulae to galaxies to the planet Jupiter. It’s hard to pick a favorite, but a fresh look at the M16 Eagle Nebula is a highlight.
The image encompasses the epic Pillars of Creation, a famous cosmic formation that has enchanted Earthlings for decades. The Hubble Space Telescope first made the Pillars of Creation—a star-forming region with towering fingers of gas and dust—famous in the 1990s. The James Webb Space Telescope got in on the action with its own version in 2022.
Chandra’s X-ray vision allows it to tease out views of the universe in a unique way. “X-rays are an especially penetrating type of light that reveals extremely hot objects and very energetic physical processes,” said NASA. “Many fascinating regions in space glow strongly in X-rays, such as the debris from exploded stars and material swirling around black holes.
” Chandra data is often combined with data from other observatories that “see” in different ways. The Pillars of Creation image uses data from Chandra melded with an infrared view from Web.