pillar of creation are dead

12.19.13.17.8 3 Lamat 1 Muan
I had this as my wallpaper for a while (and then I had the Witches Broom Nebula). I can't believe it's gone.
Pillars of Creation Toppled By Stellar Blast
(A)new study suggests the famous Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula might have already been toppled long ago, and that what the Hubble Space Telescope actually captured was their ghost image....A new picture of the Eagle Nebula shot by
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope....show the intact pillars next to a giant cloud of glowing dust scorched by the heat of a massive stellar explosion known as a supernova. (clicking on small image will bring you to original large image).....
Astronomers think the supernova's shock wave knocked the pillars down about 6,000 years ago. But because the Eagle Nebula is located some 7,000 light years away, the majestic pillars will appear intact to observers on Earth for another 1,000 years or so....Humans living 1,000 to 2,000 years ago might have noticed the supernova event that destroyed the pillars as an unusually bright star in the sky.

That I don't understand. How could Earth have seen the shockwave from 7,000 light years away 1,000 years ago but we can still see the (dead) pillars?
In fact, the new show at Peabody Museum (Yale-New Haven) has extensive pictures of the pillars. Wonder if they'll add this new info? It started just after Pluto was demoted, and they had already changed some of the exhibits to reflect that.
I could muse on this. Life is fleeting? Enjoy what you have while you've got it? Beauty is fleeting?