The Eagle Nebula (aka M16 or NGC 6611) displays The Pillars of Eagle Castle, above center: light-years-long columns of molecular hydrogen gas and dust, so cold, dark and dense that the gas within contracts gravitationally to form new stars. Little fingers extending from their tops and sides, each larger than our entire solar system, hide these newborn stars. Ultraviolet light from nearby hot young stars slowly erodes these clouds, uncovering small globules of particularly dense gas: EGGs for "Evaporating Gaseous Globules." Once uncovered, the EGGs’ shadows protect the gas behind them from being eroded, allowing the finger-like projections on the pillars to form. Some EGGs harbor embryonic stars. The Spitzer Space Telescope recently found that a previously unknown supernova may have destroyed the Pillars about 6000 years ago; but given their distance we have another 1000 years to enjoy them. APOD Feb. 16, 2014: T. A. Rector & B. A. Wolpe. A finer, more highly resolved photograph of the Eagle Nebula can be found on page 217 in your personalized fine art book You and the Universe.