Hubble’s Inside The Image: Mystic Mountain

The Hubble Space Telescope has taken over 1.5 million observations over the past 32 years. One of them is the breathtaking Nebula known as Mystic Mountain.

This image, which is even more dramatic than fiction, captures the chaotic activity atop a pillar of gas and dust, three light-years tall, which is being eaten away by the brilliant light from nearby bright stars. The pillar is also being assaulted from within, as infant stars buried inside it fire off jets of gas that can be seen streaming from towering peaks.

In this video, Dr. Ken Carpenter takes us on a journey through the Nebula, teaching us some of the interesting science behind this famous Hubble image.

For more information, visit https://nasa.gov/hubble.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Producer & Director: James Leigh

Editor: Lucy Lund

Director of Photography: James Ball

Additional Editing & Photography: Matthew Duncan

Executive Producers: James Leigh & Matthew Duncan

Production & Post: Origin Films


Video Credit:
Hubble Space Telescope Animation
Credit: ESA/Hubble (M. Kornmesser & L. L. Christensen), A. Fujii, Robert Gendler, Digitized Sky Survey 2, Panther Observatory, Steve Cannistra, Michael Pierce, Robert Berrington (Indiana University), Nigel Sharp, Mark Hanna (NOAO)/WIYN/NSF

Music Credit:
"Transcode" by Lee Groves [PRS], and Peter George Marett [PRS] via Universal Production Music

“Counting the Stars” by by Patrick Rundblad via Shutterstock Music