Astronomy Picture of the Day - Trifid Pillars and Jets

NASA ^ | 3 May, 2026 | Image Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI; Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)

[MtnClimber]

Explanation: Dust pillars are like interstellar mountains. They survive because they are more dense than their surroundings, but they are slowly being eroded away by a hostile environment. Visible in the featured picture by the Hubble Space Telescope is the end of a huge gas and dust pillar in the Trifid Nebula (M20), punctuated by a smaller pillar pointing up and an unusual jet pointing to the upper left. Many of the bright dots are newly formed stars. A star near the small pillar's end is slowly being stripped of its accreting gas by radiation from a tremendously brighter star situated off the top of the image. The jet extends nearly a light-year and would not be visible without external illumination. As gas and dust evaporate from the pillars, the hidden stellar source of this jet will likely be uncovered, possibly over the next 20,000 years.

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TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; nasa

[MtnClimber]

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For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

[MtnClimber]

[MtnClimber]

Pinging the APOD list

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

[blueunicorn6]

It looks like Winnie The Pooh standing in his doorway.

Waiting for a cheeseburger.

[Big Red Badger]

We got a peak like This here called
Thumb Butte but it has been called many things before. It doesn’t look like anything to be honest ‘cept Sore Thumb.

[MtnClimber]

I keep forgetting to look for the cheeseburger angle in the image. Thanks for the great observation.

[telescope115]

It looks magical.