Close-Up of the Eagle Nebula
The tip of this column shows a number of 'fingers' pointing to the upper right. Each finger hosts in its tip a baby star. Some of these protostars may never ignite because they will be too small by the time the stellar winds strip away the raw materials needed for growth. You can see a tiny, faint, cocoon-shaped mass just to the upper-left of the pillar; this is a baby that has been cut off, apparently before it could ignite its nuclear furnace. In the upper right is a finger that is almost detached from the main pillar.
Image credit: Hubble Space Telescope; The main source for HST images and explanations is HubbleSite.org.
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