"The Eagle Nebula"

These pillar structures are columns of cool interstellar hydrogen gas and dust that are incubators for new stars. The tallest pillar (left) is about a light-year long!!!

Credit: Jeff Hester and Paul Scowen (Arizona State University), and NASA

The "Eye of God" or "Etched Hourglass"

NebulaThis image shows MyCnl8, a young planetary hourglass nebula which is 8000 lightyears away.

Credit: Raghvendra Sahai and John Trauger (JPL), the WFPC2 science team, and NASA

The Cygnus Loop is the remnant of a supernova that is 20,000 years old and 2,500 light - years away in the constellation "Cygnus the Swan".

Credit: Jeff Hester (Arizona State University) and NASA

The Orion Nebula, M42, can be found in the night sky just below the three stars in the popular constellation "Orion". This nebula is one of the closest stellar nurseries, where young stars are being created. Some stars in the nebula are only about 100,000 years old - for comparison only, the age of our sun is 5 billion ( 5 000 000 000 ) years.

Credit: C.R. O'Dell (Rice University), and NASA

The Stingray Nebula

This picture shows Hen-1357, the youngest known planetary nebula. The nebula is about 130 times the size of our solar system. It is 18,000 light-years distant, in the southern constellation Ara.

Credit: Matt Bobrowsky (Orbital Sciences Corporation) and NASA