IC 4703, the H II region that surrounds the open cluster, is a diffuse emission nebula, a vast region of active star formation with a visual magnitude of 8, located in the Sagittarius Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy, the next inner spiral arm from our own. The “Spire” - another large pillar - is in the middle left of the image. The cluster of bright stars to the upper right is NGC 6611, home to the massive and hot stars that illuminate the pillars. This wide-field image shows not only the central pillars, but also several others in the same star-forming region, as well as a huge number of stars in front of, in, or behind the Eagle Nebula. At the centre, the so-called “Pillars of Creation” can be seen.
Three-colour composite mosaic image of the Eagle Nebula (Messier 16, or NGC 6611), based on images obtained with the Wide-Field Imager camera on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory. introduced the name Star Queen Nebula because the nebula’s central pillar reminded him of a silhouette of the Star Queen. The name Eagle comes from the nebula’s shape, which is said to resemble an eagle with outstretched wings. The Eagle Nebula occupies an area 70 by 55 light years in size, or 30 arc minutes of the sky, while the open cluster has a radius of 15 light years, corresponding to 7 arc minutes in angular diameter. The cluster’s designation in the New General Catalogue is NGC 6611, while the nebula is referred to as IC 4703. The nebula is best known for the Pillars of Creation region, three large pillars of gas famously photographed by Hubble in 1995.Īlso known as the Star Queen Nebula, M16 lies at a distance of 7,000 light years from Earth and has an apparent magnitude of 6.0.
M16 lies near the borders with the constellations Sagittarius and Scutum. Messier 16 (M16), the famous Eagle Nebula, is a star-forming nebula with a young open star cluster located in Serpens.
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