The Eagle Nebula is a cloud of gas and dust located 6,500 light-years from Earth. The temperatures there are cold, hovering around 450 degrees Fahrenheit below zero. But within this dark cosmic womb is where some of the hottest objects in the universe are born—stars. All stars, including our sun, once formed from atoms of hydrogen scattered throughout space. The atoms collect in dense molecular clouds that collapse under pressure, producing concentrated clumps of matter. Over thousands of years, given the right conditions, these objects brighten and go on to become the shining light and cradle of new worlds. Watch the video to see a 3D close-up of one of the Eagle Nebula's star-forming regions, the aptly named Pillars of Creation.
Please give credit for this item to: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Video courtesy of ESA/Hubble/M. Kornmesser and L. L. Christensen Cover image courtesy of ESA/Herschel/PACS/SPIRE/Hill, Motte, HOBYS Key Programme Consortium and ESA/XMM-Newton/EPIC/XMM-Newton-SOC/Boulanger Visible light image courtesy of NASA/ESA/STScI/ASU/J.Hester & P.Scowen X-ray image courtesy of NASA/CXC/U.Colorado/Linsky et al. and NASA/ESA/STScI/ASU/J.Hester & P.Scowen Near infrared image courtesy of VLT/ISAAC/McCaughrean & Andersen/AIP/ESO
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