-
The Eagle Nebula was created about two million years ago, and will live for another 10-20,000 years.
The Eagle Nebula can be found in the constillation Serpens. -
Discovered by Philippe Loys de Cheseaux in 1745-6.
-
Charles Messier was the first to find nebulosity with it. "...I have discovered a cluster of small stars, mixed with a faint light, near the tail of Serpens... with a weak refractor, these stars appear in the form of a nebula; but when employing a good instrument one distinguishes these stars, and one remarks in addition a nebulosity which contains three of these stars." - from Messier's notes.
-
The first photograph of the Nebula was taken by E.E. Barnard in 1895.
In 1897, Isaac Roberts photographed it and the photo appeared in the IC catalog. -
Hubble telescope images show stars emerging from "EGGs", or "evaporating gaseous globules".
he EGGs are dense, compact pockets of interstellar gas where newborn stars emerge from. The EGGs were found formed at the top of the Eagle Nebula's columns (dubbed "elephant trunks"), which are ≈9.5 ly high. The columns are made of gas dense enough to collapse under its own weight and form stars that will continue to evolve and accumulate mass from their surroundings.
