Few sights thrill backyard observers as much as the Orion Nebula (M42). The brightest stellar nursery visible from mid-northern latitudes resolves into a complex web of luminous gas and dusty tendrils even through modest telescopes. And at its core, you’ll see the brilliant young stars of the Trapezium Cluster that provide the energy to setContinue reading "JWST tours Orion’s hidden stellar nursery"

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Life in space is hard. Most orbiting observatories retire well before their 20th birthday. Yet the Hubble Space Telescope has survived and continues to thrive well into its 30s. Astronomers celebrated the observatory’s 36th birthday in April by releasing a new image of the Trifid Nebula (M20). This stellar nursery lies about 5,000 light-years fromContinue reading "Hubble captures a corner of M20"

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