The Eagle Nebula (M16), home to the iconic Pillars of Creation Nebula and Stellar Spire Nebula (YC Astrophotography)

The Eagle Nebula (M16), home to the iconic Pillars of Creation Nebula and Stellar Spire Nebula

This is the Eagle Nebula (M16), home to the iconic Pillars of Creation Nebula found at the heart of M16 and the towering Stellar Spire Nebula to the lower left, located some 6500 to 7000 light-years away in the constellation of Serpens.

After NASA flew astronauts to the Hubble Space Telescope and fixed the flaw in its optical system, the famous and astounding photo of the Pillars of Creation Nebula was taken on 1 April 1995 and released to the public to celebrate the opening chapter of Hubble's great comeback story. The Pillars of Creation highlight three giant, gaseous columns composed of interstellar gas and dust that stretch 4 to 5 light-years long. It is so aptly named because the gas and dust are in the process of creating new stars, while the pillars are also being eroded by the light from nearby stars that have recently formed.

The Stellar Spire Nebula looks like a winged fairy-tale creature poised on a pedestal and soars to a staggering height of 9.5 light-years.

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

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