These elongated strands reveal their energy source.
NGC-7822 is a young star-forming complex nearby in our galaxy at 2,900 light-years distance. The widespread pink colour indicates energized hydrogen resulting from powerful young stars nearby. Amateur and professional astronomers study the elongated structures referred to as “Pillars of Creation”. This phrase was originally used to describe similar elongated structures popularized in photos of the Eagle Nebula by the Hubble Space Telescope in the 1990’s.
The bright star at the centre of the photo is actually in the foreground, and is closer to us than it is to NGC-7822. Surrounding the energized pink regions are dark clouds of dust that are also in the foreground and muting the colourful star-forming complex behind them.
The energy source driving this scene originates with a cluster of hot young stars catalogued as Berkeley 59 and the star “BD+66 1673” near it. This star is the most powerful in our galactic neighbourhood, with a luminosity that is 100,000 times greater than our sun. It should dominate this scene, but it is deep inside the nebula and the colourful display of NGC-7822 is obscuring it.
To understand how powerful hot stars can create elongated “Pillars of Creation”, consider this familiar example: icicles. When the sun appears after a winter snowfall, ice forms on roofs. Warm energy from the sun frees the water molecules to flow downward, drawn by gravity. For our “Pillars of Creation”, gravity is pulling the energized dust and gas towards the most powerful stars. In the annotated photo, we can confirm this: the elongated strands of NGC-7822 are pointing, like arrows, to a common location: Berkeley 59 and the super-star “BD+66 1673”.
I photographed NGC-7822 from my garden in Strasbourg France on 3 nights in July 2026, July 2025 and August 2024. The final image was built from 220 photos where each was a 3 minute exposure (11 hours of photography over 3 years).
Equipment used to capture images:
- Telescope: Redcat51
- Computer: ASIAIR
- Mount: AM5
- Filter: Optolong L-Enhance
- Camera: ASI183MC-PRO
Processing Software:
- Pixinsight + WBPP + MAS
- Blur Exterminator
- Noise Exterminator
- Star Exterminator
- Seti Astro Suite
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