Star Birds

Credit: NASA, ESA, and The Hub­ble Her­itage Team (AURA/STScI)

A pair of star birds take flight in this image of the Tri­fid Neb­ula from NASA’s Hub­ble Space Tele­scope.

Explore the tur­bu­lent neb­ula over­lain by three dust bands. What sto­ries do you see in this star-making neb­ula? Leave a com­ment below.

A group of bright O-type stars at the cen­ter illu­mi­nate this neb­ula. The stars flood the area with ultra­vi­o­let radi­a­tion, caus­ing it to glow. The sear­ing wind from these new suns also carves out pil­lars and holes in the cloud. The stars have blown a cav­ity sur­round­ing them­selves so that no new stars can be formed. But nearby, gas and dust have been pushed together. New stars form in places like this where gas and dust can col­lapse on itself under its own gravity

Look near the bright stars in the cen­ter and the bright rim of cloud nearby. Travel up this pil­lar and find a com­plex wispy area. This area glows blue because the oxy­gen gas in the cloud here is evap­o­rat­ing into space. Near the top of the image, look for a del­i­cate finger-like stalk. This stalk points directly to the cen­tral stars of the Tri­fid Nebula.

The Tri­fid Neb­ula lies about 9,000 light-years from Earth toward the con­stel­la­tion Sagit­tar­ius, the Archer. Astronomers use images like this one to bet­ter under­stand the com­plex inter­ac­tion of gas and dust in areas where we find young and old stars.