Wikipedia:POTD column/June 26, 2006

Perhaps one of the most famous and easily-recognized space objects, the Eagle Nebula is a young open cluster in the constellation Serpens, about 7,000 light-years away. These interstellar gas pockets of molecular hydrogen act as cosmic incubators for the creation of new stars. Pictured here are columns of gas which have been called the "Pillars of Creation" or "elephant trunks". Within these columns, heavy gas collapses upon itself, and then expands as it absorbs more hydrogen mass from the cocoon-like walls, until a star is finally formed. These columns may reach a light-year in length.

Photo credit: Jeff Hester (NASA) and Paul Scowen (Arizona State University)
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