Hubble Telescope Captures Majestic Photo of the 'Pillars of Creation'

— -- A striking photo taken by the Hubble Space Telescope shows the "Pillars of Creation" more than two decades after the cosmic columns of gas were first photographed by NASA's orbiting telescope.

The new high-definition photo is wider and shows the silhouettes of the pillars as they are surrounded by stars.

Located nearly 7,000 light years away in the distant M16 part of the Eagle Nebula, the new image is even more breathtaking than the one captured by Hubble in 1995.

The first photo of the "Pillars of Creation" showed stunning detail of three columns of gas and stars of the Eagle Nebula and captivated those on Earth so much that it appeared everywhere from movies and television shows to a postage stamp.

Paul Scowen, one of the co-leaders of the original Hubble observations of the Eagle Nebula, said the most recent image of the pillars was taken "at a very unique and short-lived moment in their evolution."

"The ghostly bluish haze around the dense edges of the pillars is material getting heated up and evaporating away into space," he said.