Eagle Nebula

Home to the iconic Pillars of Creation, where dense molecular columns are being sculpted by UV radiation from a nearby young star cluster.

The Eagle Nebula is an H II region and young star cluster (NGC 6611) roughly 5,700 light-years away. The Pillars of Creation — three towering columns of molecular gas — became iconic after Hubble's 1995 image. O-type stars in NGC 6611 blast the surrounding gas with ionising UV photons, sculpting the pillars through a process called photoevaporation. In radio, cold CO line emission traces the dense molecular reservoir feeding the pillars. Spitzer revealed IR emission from the warm dust eroding pillar surfaces. The 2022 JWST NIRCam image resolved individual protostars embedded within the pillars, previously hidden from optical view. GALEX UV imaging shows the intense radiation field from the cluster ionising the nebula. Chandra X-ray observations reveal dozens of young, pre-main-sequence stellar X-ray sources within the cluster, as young stars are prolific X-ray emitters. Together the wavelengths capture a star formation factory in action.