With the development of technology, mankind has gained the opportunity to study not only its own planet, but also the worlds of distant space. Many constellations and nebulae excite the minds of great scientists trying to explore as many corners of the boundless Universe as possible. Some of the objects discovered by astronomers deserve special attention. Like, for example, the Eagle Nebula.
Opening
The Eagle Nebula was discovered between 1745 and 1746 by Jean-Philippe Lua De Chesault, a Swiss astronomer and physicist. He described it as a constellation between Sagittarius and Ophiuchus. And already in 1764, this discovery was repeated by another scientist named Charles Messier.
Since the discovery, the nebula has begun to show particular interest. Several other famous astronomers studied this object. They counted from fifty to one hundred stars in their observations. The first images of the Eagle Nebula were taken in 1895 by Edward Emerson Barnard, an American observer astronomer.
The properties
The Eagle Nebula is located at a distance of about 7 thousand km. from the earth. The brightest stars have a visible magnitude (an indicator of the amount of light that an observer sees) at about + 8.24. For comparison, our Sun, whose brightness exceeds the brightness of the full moon by 400,000 times, has a visible magnitude of -26.7. Stars of the Eagle Nebula can be seen with the help of amateur equipment.
The nebula is located in the area of the constellation Snake. It measures approximately 70 × 55 light years. Her age is about 5.5 million years.
Unusual objects
A lot of photos were taken of the Eagle nebula, and now there are already a large number of interesting objects, baptized by various poetic names.
Many people know the photo "Pillars of Creation" in the Eagle nebula, which went beyond astronomy and went into popular culture. But this phenomenon is a large accumulation of gases and dust, which, in turn, are the material for creating new stars.
The properties of light allow us to observe these pillars to this day, but, in fact, they no longer represent such a familiar image in the photograph. About 8000-9000 thousand years ago, a supernova exploded, and a few years later the blast wave overtook the "Pillars of Creation", thereby destroying it. According to authoritative astronomers, humanity will be able to enjoy such an object for about another thousand years.
Another interesting object is the Fairy dust pillar. Stars are also formed from it, but, unlike the Pillars of Creation, it did not fall under the destructive influence of a supernova. The dust pillar is very similar to the image of a fairy, for which he received such a specific name.
Eagle eggs are an interesting area of the Eagle nebula, which, unfortunately, does not have a speaking name. Like other objects, it is a place of accumulation of dust and gas, due to which it may lose its primary shape in the future. The history of the formation of the Eagle Eggs object is extremely pragmatic. The thing is that English-speaking scientists originally gave this phenomenon the name "vaporizing gaseous globules", which is translated into English with the abbreviation EGG, which forms the word, translated into Russian meaning "egg".