The region was rephotographed by ESA's Herschel Space Observatory in 2011, and again by Hubble in 2014 with a newer camera. The astronomers responsible for the photo were Jeff Hester and Paul Scowen from Arizona State University. Taken on April 1, 1995, it was named one of the top ten photographs from Hubble by.
They are so named because the gas and dust are in the process of creating new stars, while also being eroded by the light from nearby stars that have recently formed. Pillars of Creation is a photograph taken by the Hubble Space Telescope of elephant trunks of interstellar gas and dust in the Eagle Nebula, in the Serpens constellation, some 6,500–7,000 light years from Earth.
