Genesis

Hubble Space Telescope (Credit: Photographs: NASA)Released by the us National
Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) on
November 2 (see Down To Earth,
Vol 4, No 14), these Hubble-captured
snapshots hold up to the eye a
mind-blowing, spectacular display of
cosmic births.

Monumental eerie pillars of
interstellar hydrogen gas and dust -
part of the 7,000 light-years distant
star nursery, the 'Eagle Nebula' (also
called ml 6) - arise like phantoms
out Of a molecular cloud (above). Lit
by streams of ultraviolet light emitted
by newborn stars (a process called
photoevaporation), these awesome
gaseous masses are galactic
hatcheries: in them exist small
globules ofeven denser gas, called
Evaporating Gaseous Globules
(EGGS), which breed the embryonic
stars. Photoevaporation erodes these
EGGs, enabling the stars to emerge.

In the picture on the left, a single
column of cool hydrogen reaches out
into space in the same Nebula, its
finger-like protrusions on the top
sheltering the stars to be born. Each
tip of a Yinger'is larger than our own
solar system. These photographs are
the latest in the Hubble Space
Telescope's album of rivetting cosmic
visual treats.