Thread: The most important pictures

Originally Posted by Syme

Well, remember that the Eagle Nebula itself is actually full of young stars; they are scattered all throughout the structure of the nebula. It is also very near a group of extremely bright, hot, massive stars called NGC 6611, which are partially responsible for the spectacular illumination effects that can be seen in some pictures of the nebula. Viewing the nebula from the right place and the right direction, a naked-eye observer could probably get a pretty well-lit view of it all. I couldn't say for sure, though.

Interestingly, it is the intense radiation flux and stellar wind from the stars in NGC 6611 that is believed to be responsible for forming those incredible pillar and tower structures in the gas clouds. The "heads" of the pillars are regions of dust/gas that are denser than the surrounding regions, and thus aren't dissipated as easily by the radiation; and the bodies or "stems" of the pillars are formed by gas/dust that is in the shadows of these dense regions and thus remain in place while the rest of the gas/dust around them blows away. Also interestingly, there is evidence that a supernova actually completely destroyed (blew away) the "Pillars of Creation" and many other distinctive Eagle Nebula features six thousand years ago, but we won't know for sure for another thousand years, since they're seven thousand light years away.

/astronomy ramble

Yes I remember hearing about how radiation pressure formed the structure of this nebula, though I don't remember as many details as you have. That's pretty cool.

I'm a little surprised, however, that we have evidence for a supernova destroying this structure 6k years ago... how could we possibly have this information before we see it? It's obvious that we don't have direct information about this event, as we if did we would have received this information faster than the speed of light. Is this speculated from the phase and size of the star whose supernova is thought to have destroyed this nebula?

Originally Posted by sycld

I'm a little surprised, however, that we have evidence for a supernova destroying this structure 6k years ago... how could we possibly have this information before we see it? It's obvious that we don't have direct information about this event, as we if did we would have received this information faster than the speed of light. Is this speculated from the phase and size of the star whose supernova is thought to have destroyed this nebula?

Yeah, basically. Current pictures of the Eagle Nebula (which show it as it was 7000 years ago) also show a supernova occurring in the background. Based on the proximity of the star to the nebula , it's projected that the expanding gas bubble from that supernova would have reached the nebula about 1000 years after the supernova occurred, thus about 6000 years ago. So in another 1000 years, it will have been 7000 years since the supernova shock front hit the nebula and destroyed the "Pillars" formation, and that's when the light from the event will arrive and our descendants in 3009 AD will get to see what it looks like. I sorta wish I could be around to see it... but I'm sure the next century's advances in telescope technology will give me plenty of other incredible space pics to look at for the rest of my life.

EDIT: In fact, if I'm not mistaken, that incredibly bright pinkish-white star located just to the right of the tallest pillar, about two-thirds of the way down, is the supernova that has probably already wiped out the pillars.

2nd Edit: Going with famous wartime pictures, this one is pretty well-known too:



The officer executing the prisoner is Nguyen Ngoc Loan. After the war, he moved to the US and opened a restaurant in my hometown of Burke, Virginia; it was located in a shopping center right near my family's house. His place closed in the '90s, though, and now there is a really good Chinese restaurant operating in the same spot. I still live in the area (not in Burke anymore, but about 20 minutes away) and eat there occasionally.

Originally Posted by Syme

2nd Edit: Going with famous wartime pictures, this one is pretty well-known too:



The officer executing the prisoner is Nguyen Ngoc Loan. After the war, he moved to the US and opened a restaurant in my hometown of Burke, Virginia; it was located in a shopping center right near my family's house. His place closed in the '90s, though, and now there is a really good Chinese restaurant operating in the same spot. I still live in the area (not in Burke anymore, but about 20 minutes away) and eat there occasionally.

Holy shite, this general lived out the end of his life in Burke and opened a restaurant in a mall there?! I wish I had known; my family loves Vietnamese food, and we could've said we ate at this guy's restaurant...

Originally Posted by Syme

Hahah, it was a pizza place. But yeah. You know the Rolling Valley shopping mall, at the corner of Shiplett and Old Keene? That's where it was. It was where the Tau Tau (that good Chinese place) is today.

Ahaha, it was some (probably) second-rate pizza place on top of it? Wow, what a major downgrade in social status...

Also, I'm not really familiar with Burke. I'm up in the MD suburbs of DC and DC mostly, and the I don't know much about NOVA outside Arlington, Rosslyn, Alexandria, and the like.