7 stunning images of Eagle Nebula shared by NASA

The Eagle Nebula is a young open cluster of stars,  located 7,000 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Serpens.

These towering tendrils of cosmic dust and gas sit at the heart of Messier 16, or the Eagle Nebula. 

M16 is the collective name for two distinct objects that are listed separately in astronomical catalogues: an emission nebula, referred to as IC 4703, and an open star cluster, designated as NGC 6611.

The blue colors in the image represent oxygen, red is sulfur, and green represents both nitrogen and hydrogen.

The aptly named Pillars of Creation, featured in this stunning Hubble image, are part of an active star-forming region within the nebula and hide newborn stars in their wispy columns. 

The pillars are bathed in the scorching ultraviolet light from a cluster of young stars located just outside the frame.

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope captured this image of Eagle Nebula which shows the region's entire network of turbulent clouds and newborn stars in infrared light.