The Eagle Nebula births stars from cosmic pillars

The Eagle Nebula, a stellar nursery 6,500 light-years away, features towering gas and dust pillars where new stars are born. These iconic structures, famously photographed by Hubble as the "Pillars of Creation," are sculpted by intense radiation from massive stars. Gravity within these pillars causes dense pockets to collapse, forming protostars that eventually ignite into full-fledged stars. This dynamic process is crucial for how galaxies like our Milky Way build their stellar populations. Observations, including those from the James Webb Space Telescope, reveal dense clumps within the pillars, called EGGs, which may harbor hundreds of embryonic stars. Interestingly, some stars in the Pillars may have exploded as supernovae 6,000 years ago, with their light just reaching us now.