Hubble’s “pillars of creation”
The Hubble Space Telescope, observing M16 (also known as the Eagle Nebula), takes what may be its most famous image: towering clouds of rapidly-evaporating interstellar gas which scientists theorize are the birthplace of new stars. The huge, light-years-long hydrogen clouds are dubbed evaporating gaseous globules, or EGGs; astronomers also call the structure a stellar nursery. The image quickly becomes a mainstay of the media, making appearances in Babylon 5 and the movie Contact.