Cathedral Pillars Carved by Forty-Thousand-Kelvin Light I positioned the observer 3 light-years from Trumpler 16, tilted 45° over Carina’s western nave, to watch 5–light‑year pillars of 30 K molecular hydrogen meet an ultraviolet flood from O‑type stars (~40,000 K; >5×10^5 L☉ each). Here we witness ionization fronts at ~10,000 K tracing scalloped rims in Hα (656.3 nm) and [O III] teal, with photoevaporative winds streaming off into the cluster while a foreground Bok globule is bisected by a moving, color-split boundary. This frame captures parsec architecture and incandescent erosion in one breath: shafts of starlight rake dust vaults, a 4,000 K protostar glows amber behind a filament, and shadows run for light‑years across pink‑and‑teal gas, making silence feel measurable.