A National Air and Space Museum astronomer picks some of his
favorite images from the storied telescope. - By Rebecca Maksel
- AirSpaceMag.com, May 22, 2009 NASA, ESA, STScl, J. Hester and
P. Scowen (Arizona State University) "Pillar" in the Eagle
Nebula (1995) This is a colorized version of one of the pillars
in the Eagle Nebula. The image, write DeVorkin and Smith, “shows
fingers of gas and dust created in the shadow of dense protostar
systems. These systems block radiation from intensely hot,
massive stars clustered in the nebula’s cavity. The tiny tips of
these fingers are comparable in size to our solar system.” “This
is a huge chasm in space,” says DeVorkin, “one that is vastly
larger than our imaginations can allow us to deal with. The
tiniest tips of these things are bigger than the solar system.
The human mind can conceive of these things, but can’t—I don’t
think—really live with it in any way. This [nebula] is not
visible, even though it’s in the visible wavelengths. The
contrasts and the range have