Picture clouds—not drifting across our skies, but stretching across space itself, cradling the birth of new stars. That's exactly what NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has revealed in its view of the Pillars of Creation—shown here—with colours and details unlike anything seen before.

These massive, spire-like structures—rising diagonally from bottom left to the top right—are composed almost entirely of dust and gas, the very seedbed of stars. Within these towering formations, gravity tightens its grip on knots of material, sparking gradual ignition and birthing new stars that already shimmer along the pillars' edges. Remarkably, this celestial performance is taking place just 6,500 light-years away, within the Eagle Nebula. Hidden behind thick lanes of interstellar clouds that mask the distant universe, the pillars emerge in full glory, shining front and centre.