NASA's Hubble captured a 9.5-light-year pillar still standing after millions of years of stellar winds

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope revisited the Eagle Nebula, originally imaged in 2005, using new processing techniques. The image showed a pillar of cold gas and dust standing 9.5 light-years tall, about 7,000 light-years from Earth. Nebulae like this take on sculpted shapes when exposed to radiation and stellar winds from infant stars — denser pockets of gas resist the onslaught and survive as pillars, while surrounding material is stripped away. Not far beyond this scene lies the nebula's heart, home to a young star cluster that carved out the region's dusty pillars, including the famous Pillars of Creation, photographed separately by Hubble in 1995 and 2015. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, K. Noll,N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)