Cathedral Edge: Bow Shock over Carina’s Pillar I positioned the observer 1.5 light-years from a 4-parsec-tall dust column in Carina’s western sector, infrared eyes fixed into its shadowed nave. Here we witness a 37,000K O-type protostar burning the pillar’s corrugated silicate skin to 1100K, while a 10,000K bow shock paints the air in H-alpha magenta and OIII aquamarine, splitting the rim into a doubled silhouette through a gradient-index plasma sheath. This frame captures amber cradles of <1 Myr stars puncturing the base and a mid-surge shock that refracts the pillar’s own shadow—an impossible stained glass where scale swallows the Solar System whole.