Pillars of Creation

The Pillars of Creation are star-forming columns of gas in the Eagle Nebula, 6,500 light-years away.

The Pillars of Creation are towers of cold gas and dust inside the Eagle Nebula (M16) in the constellation Serpens, about 6,500 light-years from Earth. Hubble first imaged them in 1995, producing one of the most famous astronomical photographs, revisited the scene in 2014, and in October 2022 the James Webb Space Telescope revealed newborn stars inside the columns in infrared light. The pillars are an active stellar nursery, slowly eroded by radiation from nearby hot stars.