[sbierwagen]

Here's a stacked series of exposures adding up to 36 minutes of the Eagle nebula (of which Pillars of Creation is a zoomed in segment) https://noctilove.co.uk/portfolio/m16-eagle-nebula/

About what you'd see from a 16 inch telescope in a superb dark sky location. A red smudge with hints of finer detail.

[augustuspolius]

Thank you. If I was in a spaceship at a much closer distance to the object than I am right now, would I be able to see the dust and the shape similar to what we see on the photos? Or is this all invisible to the human eye?

[sbierwagen]

Sure. It's a physical object, reflecting broadband light from nearby stars. The colors would be different, and you might not see the same fine structure without filters, like how the Sun looks very different through a Calcium K line filter https://thelonelyphoton.com/2022/01/08/solar-imaging/

Given its size the density is probably pretty low, though. If you got right up next to it you wouldn't see much, in the same way a fog bank gets less visible when you walk towards it.

[augustuspolius]

Thank you - your explanation and that photo of the Sun with the Calcium K filter are very helpful.

With so many colorized photos of space objects and so many artist impressions, I wasn’t sure whether space is just a black void to the human eye or we are capable of seeing the gorgeous colors of different nebulae and such.