Who’s ready to celebrate? The Hubble Space Telescope is! In honor of its 36th anniversary this week, the telescope returned a detailed closeup of the Trifid Nebula, which lies about 5,000 light-years from Earth.
The colors in Hubble’s visible light image are reminiscent of an underwater scene filled with fine-grained sediments fluttering through the ocean’s depths. Hubble’s image focuses on a “head” and undulating “body” of a rust-colored cloud of gas and dust that resembles a sea slug that appears as if it is gliding through the cosmos.
The sea slug’s left “horn” is part of Herbig-Haro 399, a jet of plasma periodically ejected over centuries by an actively forming star embedded in the head.
Several massive stars, which are outside this field of view, have shaped this region for at least 300,000 years.
Hubble has helped researchers make discoveries for decades—and supplies new data every day that will inevitably lead to more. Hubble’s varied instruments and the expansive range of light it collects—ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared—have sealed the telescope’s status as an ongoing astronomical pioneer.
Keep reading: https://news.stsci.edu/4cvi5jL
