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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So, first thing first, the pillars of creation is part of a nebula inside our own galaxy 6,500 to 7,000 light years away. That means that the light we can see from it now, has originated 6,500 – 7,000 years ago. As far as I understand, there is believed to be a supernova that we see developing near the pillars, again with light from thousands of years ago.
The supernova would be very energetic and its shockwave would likely scatter the gas, destroying the pillars as they are today. There is a timeline prediction for that supernova saying that it happened ~5000 years ago. But we might not see the supernova and its effects on the nebula for many years. So, in effect the nebula might be gone, we just waiting to see it unfold.
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