Stellar 'Eggs'

In one of the most famous and often reprinted Hubble images, the orbiting camera captured this eerie glowing pillar of cool molecular hydrogen gas and dust in the "Eagle Nebula" (M-16), 7,000 light-years away in the constellation Serpens. New stars are incubating at the top, embedded inside the finger like protrusions. Each "fingertip" is larger than our own solar system. The pillar is slowly eroding away under attack by ultraviolet light from hot stars outside the frame.

Photo by Jeff Hester and Paul Scowen (Arizona State University) and NASA.