... Credit: Mark McCaughrean and Morten Andersen ( AIP ), European Southern Observatory Explanation: The head of an interstellar gas and dust cloud is shown here in false-color, a near-infrared view recorded by astronomers hunting for stars within M16's Eagle Nebula . Made famous in a 1995 Hubble image of the 7,000 light-year distant star forming region, the pillar-shaped cloud's surface was seen to be covered with finger-like evaporating gaseous globules (EGGs). ... Stars Forming in Serpens . ...