Pillars of Creation

Just looked up what exactly the Pillars of Creation are. I guess the term refers specifally to this photo taken by the Hubble Telescope in 1995:

This is a picture of giant gas clouds in the Eagle nebula. They are in the process of creating stars which is why they where called the "Pillars of Creation". They are also apparently being eroded by the light of nearby stars in a process called photoevaportation, which I had to look up. 

Interestingly, the Pillars of Creation are actually neither creating new stars nor being eroded because, most likely, they no longer exist. They where destroyed by a shock wave from a super nova. In fact they where destroyed 6000 years ago but since they are 7000 light years away from us we see them in their still extant state.