The enigmatic Star Queen is perched upon the tendrils of cosmic gas and the dust of the "Pillars of Creation" in my photograph of Messier 16, The Eagle Nebula (abbreviated as M16). Messier 16 drifts some seven thousand light years away in the Constellation of Serpens, the Serpent. It rises low in the South Eastern sky in early summer. This beautiful but yet mysterious molecular cloud of gas is a diffuse emission nebula with regions of new star formation. The energy from the nearby stars excites the hydrogen gas causing it to emit the beautiful radiating colors we see.

The dark silhouetted central figure to me resembling an Eagle gives this nebula its name. The Eagle nebula was discovered by the Swiss astronomer Jean-Philippe Loys de Chéseaux in 1745. M16 is also known as The Spire. The American astronomer Robert Burnham, Jr. also introduced the name Star Queen Nebula.

The Eagle Nebula is part of a diffuse emission nebula, or H II region, which is catalogued as IC 4703. This region of active current star formation is about 5700 light-years distant. A spire of gas that can be seen coming off the nebula in the upper left of my picture is approximately 9.5 light-years or about 90 trillion kilometers long.

The cluster associated with the nebula has approximately 8,100 stars, which are mostly concentrated in a gap in the molecular cloud to the upper right of the Pillars. The brightest star (HD 168076) is actually a binary star and you can make out its mate in my photo. This star has a mass about 80 times our solar system, and a luminosity up to 1 million times that of the Sun. The cluster's age has been estimated to be 1–2 million years. The pedestal that the Star Queen stands on is composed of cold gas and dust and stretches 9.5 light-years tall, or twice the distance from our sun to our nearest star. Radiation from the hot young stars in the top half of the image are illuminating and eroding the structure.

The Pillars of Creation are a fascinating but relatively small feature of the entire Eagle Nebula, which spans 70 by 55 light-years. Stretching roughly 4 to 5 light-years, The pillars are the finger like structures seen below the queen and were made famous by an amazing photograph from the Hubble Space Telescope. The pillars are 4 to 5 light years tall.



Messier 16 is one of my very favorite objects in the sky. When I look at this photograph I can only think that this must have been painted in watercolors by the hand of our Creator.

Clear skies to you, Ken Adler