The Pillars of Creation are one of the most iconic images ever to be captured by the Hubble Space Telescope . Now , astronomers have produced the first complete three-dimensional view of these beautiful columns of interstellar gas and dust . The image , together with data collected by Nasa , suggests these structures only have three million years left before they fade away - a relatively short time in cosmic terms . Scroll down for video . The new observations , taken by the European Space Agency , reveal many new details — including a previously unseen jet from a young star . The original Hubble Space Telescope image of the famous Pillars of Creation was taken two decades ago and immediately became one of its most famous and evocative pictures . The jutting structures , along with the nearby star cluster , NGC 6611 , are parts of a star formation region called the Eagle Nebula , also known as Messier 16 or M16 . The nebula and its associated objects are located about 7000 light-years away in the constellation of Serpens ( The Serpent ) . Located in the Eagle Nebula , Messier 16 , researchers used the Muse instrument on ESO 's Very Large Telescope ( VLT ) create the 3D view . The new study reports fresh evidence for two gestating stars in the left and middle pillars as well as a jet from a young star that had escaped attention up to now . For more stars to form in environments like the Pillars of Creation , it is a race against time as intense radiation from the powerful stars that are already shining continues to grind away at the pillars . By measuring the Pillars of Creation 's rate of evaporation , Muse has given astronomers a time frame for when the pillars will be no more . They shed about 70 times the mass of the sun every million years or so . Based on the their present mass of about 200 times that of the sun , the Pillars of Creation have an expected lifetime of perhaps three million more years . Some scientists have put forward the theory that the Pillars of Creation were already killed by a neighboring supernova some 6,000 years ago . If this is the case , astronomers on Earth won ’ t know for another 1,000 years , when the light from the descruction reaches our planet . 'The original Nasa/Esa Hubble Space Telescope image of the famous Pillars of Creation was taken two decades ago and immediately became one of its most famous and evocative pictures , ' said Esa . ' This view shows how the MUSE instrument on ESO 's Very Large Telescope has created a three-dimensional view of the iconic Pillars of Creation in the star-forming region Messier 16 . Each pixel in the data corresponds to a spectrum . The 'slices ' of data correspond to some of the different chemical elements present . 'Since then , these billowing clouds , which extend over a few light-years , have awed scientists and the public alike . ' The jutting structures , along with the nearby star cluster , NGC 6611 , are parts of a star formation region called the Eagle Nebula , also known as Messier 16 or M16 . The nebula and its associated objects are located about 7000 light-years away in the constellation of Serpens ( The Serpent ) . The Pillars of Creation are a classic example of the column-like shapes that develop in the giant clouds of gas and dust that are the birthplaces of new stars . The columns arise when immense , freshly formed blue–white O and B stars give off intense ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds that blow away less dense materials from their vicinity . Denser pockets of gas and dust , however , can resist this erosion for longer . Behind such thicker dust pockets , material is shielded from the harsh , withering glare of O and B stars . The original NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of the famous Pillars of Creation was taken two decades ago . This shielding creates dark 'tails ' or 'elephant trunks ' , which we see as the dusky body of a pillar , that point away from the brilliant stars . ESO 's Muse instrument on the Very Large Telescope has now helped illustrate the ongoing evaporation of the Pillars of Creation in unprecedented detail , revealing their orientation . MUSE has shown that the tip of the left pillar is facing us , atop a pillar that is is actually situated behind NGC 6611 , unlike the other pillars . This tip is bearing the brunt of the radiation from NGC 6611 's stars , and as a result looks brighter to our eyes than the bottom left , middle and right pillars , whose tips are all pointed away from our view . Astronomers hope to better understand how young O and B stars like those in NGC 6611 influence the formation of subsequent stars . A colour composite of the Eagle Nebula ( M 16 ) , where the pillars of creation are located . The nebula and its associated objects are located about 7000 light-years away in the constellation of Serpens ( The Serpent )
Instrument on ESO 's Very Large Telescope ( VLT ) captured image . Shows exactly how the different dusty pillars are distributed in space . The pillars shed three million times the mass of the sun every million years . They are expected to have a lifetime of perhaps about 70 more years - which is relatively short in cosmic terms .