revelation19:

These are the Pillars of Creation. They are 7,000 light years from Earth in the Eagle Nebula. What you are looking at is basically a cloud of molecular hydrogen, interstellar gases, and dust. In layman’s terms, this is a nursery for stars. Each pillar produces countless stars. (The second photo is literally a snapshot inside the pillars)

Oh, and they are too big for you to even comprehend. The largest is four light years tall. The tiny little finger like things that stick out of the top are larger than our entire solar system.

The sad part is, they don’t exist anymore. They were destroyed by an exploding star 6,000 years ago. Such mighty and magnificent structures, capable of devastating destruction and incredible creation, destroyed in an instant, millennia ago.

(via scinerds)