Pillars of Creation

"Pillars of Creation" is a photograph taken by the Hubble Telescope of elephant trunks of interstellar gas and dust in the Eagle Nebula, some 7,000 light years from Earth.They are so named because the gas and dust are in the process of forming, or creating, new stars, while also being eroded by the light from nearby stars that have recently formed.Taken on April 1, 1995, it was named one of the top ten photographs from the Hubble by Space.com.The astronomers responsible for the photo were Jeff Hester and Paul Scowen, at the time both of Arizona State University. In 2011, the region was revisited by ESA's Herschel Space Observatory.