Hubble Spire in the Eagle Nebula (M16)

Appearing like a winged fairy-tale creature poised on a pedestal, this object is actually a billowing tower of cold gas and dust rising from a stellar nursery called the Eagle Nebula. The soaring tower is 9.5 light-years or about 57 trillion miles high, about twice the distance from our Sun to the next nearest star. Stars in the Eagle Nebula are born in clouds of cold hydrogen gas that reside in chaotic neighborhoods, where energy from newborn stars sculpts fantasy-like landscapes in the gas. The tower is a giant incubator for these newborn stars. A torrent of ultraviolet light from a band of massive,