NASA news: Striking Hubble picture reveals Eagle Nebula spire 57 trillion miles long

The Eagle Nebula in NASA’s image is a cluster of young stars roughly 7,000 light-light years from Earth – 41,150,378,000,000,000 miles. Also known as Messier 16 or M16, the incredible nebula stretches across a region of space 70 by 55 light-years. The most prominent part of NASA’s Hubble picture is a spire of gas shooting upwards from the nebula, measuring about 9.5 light-years in height or about 57 trillion miles. The spire is a thin trail of stellar gas and dust twice the distance from the Sun to its nearest star Alpha Centauri.