APOD: The Eagle Nebula

This picture is the Hubble's 1995 image of the Eagle Nebula and M16, an open cluster in the background, in Serpens near an inner arm of our Spiral Milky Way. It is a tribute to the fifteenth aniversary since the Hubble was launched.
M16 is a open cluster with lots of young O stars. It is about 5.5 million years old and 7,000 light years away. M16 formed from the Eagle Nebula. Interestingly, the newly formed O stars interacts with the molecular hydrogen and gas and causes the emission nebula to shine. Evaporating Gas Globules, EGGs, are dense pockets of interstellar gas and dust emerging from the pillars. The pillars are light years in length and are rich places of star formation because the pillars are gravitationally contracting. Near the end of the pillars young stars boil away the low density ISM and expose more EGGs. See The Eagle Nebula and M16