The Hubble Telescope -Star Birth (Eagle Nebula) Wall Poster

Inside this column of molecular hydrogen gas and dust, new stars are embedded inside fingerlike protusions from the top of the nebula. Each “fingertip” is somewhat larger than our own solar system. The column is slowing eroding away by the ultraviolet light from nearby hot stars, a process called “photoevaporation.” As it does, small globules of especially dense gas buried within the cloud are uncovered. These globules have been dubbed Evaporating Gaseous Globules (EGGs). Forming inside at least some of the EGGs are embryonic stars, which abruptly stop growing when the EGGs are uncovered and they are separated from the larger reservoir of gas from which they were drawing mass. Eventually the stars merge, as the EGGs themselves succumb to photoevaporation. The Eagle Nebula is a nearby star-forming region 7,000 light years away in the constellation Serpens.

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