People are saying that The Pillars Of Creation have been destroyed, and will take 400-500 Million light years to reach us. Can someone explain how do we know it when the light hasn’t reached us?
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The Pillars of Creation are a star forming region, a dust cloud, about 7000 light years away. That means we see them as they were 7000 years ago. A light year is a measurement of distance, not of time. The length that light travels in one year.
The 400-500 million years number is definitely wrong, that is very roughly a time frame for star formation.
We have observed other, similar star formation regions and have a pretty good understanding what happens there and at what timescale. We also have computer models that represent the pillars quite accurately.
The destruction specifically refers to observations that a shock wave from a supernova (an exploding star) is wiping the dust cloud away so it will no longer be visible. That means we have some hints that this is happening or beginning to happen and that’s how we know it. If that is happening right now, we will only know of it, as in actually seeing it, in 7000 years.
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