by J2580456 » Tue Mar 30, 2010 4:24 pm
The pillars are not really there ... truly not there. Not too much more than a year or so ago we discovered a more-or-less-spherical shock wave from a supernova in the region. It appears that the massively powerful shock wave will reach the pillars of creation in about 1,000 yrs ... but that's only how it appears. We are about 7,000 light years from this formation. The pillars were blew away by the shock wave about 6,000 years ago ... and we won't "see" the event for 6,000 years.
The pillars are not really there ... truly not there. Not too much more than a year or so ago we discovered a more-or-less-spherical shock wave from a supernova in the region. It appears that the massively powerful shock wave will reach the pillars of creation in about 1,000 yrs ... but that's only how it appears. We are about 7,000 light years from this formation. The pillars were blew away by the shock wave about 6,000 years ago ... and we won't "see" the event for 6,000 years.