41. The Eagle Nebula

Discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope, the Eagle Nebula is one of the most intriguing spots in space! On a clear night, without a telescope it only appears to be a hazy spot in the sky, but in reality, this hazy spot is actually a stellar nursery, some 20 light years across.

Eagle nebula photograph taken by the Hubble space telescope. Image by WikiImages pixabay.com

The Eagle Nebula is the only nebula that has others inside it. The only named one is the pillars of creation. The rest are unnamed. There are also other types of nebula, such as

emission nebula's, and dark nebula's.

Dark nebula's are a type of interstellar cloud, and they are simply dark shapes against a light background. The reason why they are black is simply because these areas don't reflect light. Dark nebula's are commonly found by on their own. Strangely, they are rarely in other nebulas.

The Eagle nebula is roughly 70 light years across and 6000 light years from Earth. It is close to another nebula called Messier 17 a.k.a M17 or the omega nebula. They are both in the Sagittarius Arm of the milky way

The eagle nebula's first pictures were from the Hubble Space Telescope, but it's presence has been known since 1745. Looking though a powerful telescope, the Swiss astronomer Jean-Philippe Loys de Chéseaux discovered a star, in which he claimed to be a nebula, because of the "stars" physical appearance.

I hope you enjoyed reading this post. for other resources visit my youtube channel, facebook page and instagram page as well. Until next time, Give me Space!

Henry