Eli5: how do the pillars of creation just stay the same shape out in space for so long and how did it all accumulate in that area?
In: 7284
It’s scale, use the Earth as an example. It looks flat, but we know it’s round (if you don’t, there’s multiple experiments you can do to test).
We are so small, from our perspective, this lump of dirt appears flat. The scale if humans vs Earth is astronomically bigger that it’s hard to comprehend for some people in flat-earthers.
Now consider the pillars of creation, they are 6500 light-years away. The distance of a single LY is unimaginable to most people, myself included. They are so far away, we’re seeing what it looks like 6500 years ago.
Basically, it comes down to the limitations of humans. If you could watch the pillars of creation over a 10,000 year span, you would eventually see change. So far, we’re 27 years since the first picture taken of POC and it was relatively poor resolution, compared to JWST.
Tl;dr: They are changing, but our perspective limits our ability to see it change.
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