Mystic Mountain: Bright Pillar in the Carina Nebula

The Carina Nebula is a vast, star-forming region in our Milky Way Galaxy. Within the nebula, new stars form out of dense, dark clouds of gas and dust. The bright, high-energy radiation from massive young stars erodes away the dark gas. Tall pillars, such as the ones featured in this sequence, form when dense pockets of gas resist that erosion. The illuminating stars for these pillars are located well off the top of the image. At the peaks of two pillars, jets of emission serve as the birth announcements of