Apod 3.7 X-rays and the eagle nebulae

These are X-ray images taken of m-16, the Eagle Nebulae. This image shows many regions that are very visible in the X-ray area of the spectrum of light. These images that are visible in this area of the spectrum are mostly areas where active star formation is occuring. These stars can be seen in this image as the colored spots. The fact that there are no longer that many stars visible in the pillars of dust in this picture shows us that most of the star formation that occured in this area (the eagle nebulae) finished off millions of years ago.