-- "Close up on a Stellar Maternity Ward"
This incredible color image was made from three black and white pictures
taken with the HST. It shows a region where stars are being born deep
inside a giant cloud of gas and dust known as M16, or the Eagle Nebula,
about 7,000 light years from earth. New stars are forming inside each
of these pillar-like structures where the density of gas and dust has
been high enough to allow gravity to collapse and heat up these regions.
When central temperatures at spots within the pillars exceed a few million
degrees, a star is born at each spot. Gradually, the pressure of light
from other stars outside the pillars is blowing the enshrouding dust away
(eroding the pillars) and revealing the infant stars within.