The Eagle Nebula in Infrared and X-Ray

This stunning view of Messier 16, the Eagle Nebula, is a composite image that combines far-infrared wavelengths captured by the Herschel Space Observatory and X-rays from the XMM-Newton space observatory. Obviously this is a false-colour image: these wavelengths are invisible to the human eye. For a visible-light view of the nebula, see this image from the ESO’s La Silla observatory — though it’s just a grey smudge if you look at it through a small telescope. The Eagle Nebula was also the location of the famous Hubble “Pillars of Creation” photo (also a false-colour image showing chemical emissions), and you can sort of see it in the above image as well. Image credit: ESA/Herschel/PACS/SPIRE/Hill, Motte, HOBYS Key Programme Consortium (infrared); ESA/XMM-Newton/EPIC/XMM-Newton-SOC/Boulanger (X-ray).