The Fairy of Eagle Nebula
The dust sculptures of the Eagle Nebula are evaporating. As powerful starlight whittles away these cool cosmic mountains , the statuesque pillars that remain might be imagined as mythical beasts . Pictured above is one of several striking dust pillars of the Eagle Nebula that might be described as a gigantic alien fairy . This fairy, however, is ten light years tall and spews radiation much hotter than common fire . The greater Eagle Nebula , M16, is actually a giant evaporating shell of gas and dust inside of which is a growing cavity filled with a spectacular stellar nursery currently forming an open cluster of stars. The above image in scientifically re-assigned colors was released as part of the fifteenth anniversary celebration of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope .