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Exploring the Birth of Stars

Seeing ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared light helps Hubble uncover the mysteries of star formation.

Hubble image of NGC 1977. Bright blue cloud with a reddish-orange jet (bottom, center). Far-right side and bottom right corner, reddish-orange cloud

Stars form in large clouds of gas and dust called nebulae that scatter the visible wavelengths of light our eyes can see. Hubble’s capability to see ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared light enables study of several aspects of star formation. Young stars shine brightly in ultraviolet light, while visible light reveals the structure of star-forming clouds, the shock waves induced by jets from forming stars, and colorful ionized gas in the nebulae energized by young stars. Infrared light’s longer wavelengths can pass through the cloud relatively undisturbed. Hubble’s near-infrared instruments and high resolving power can detect this escaping light, revealing deeply embedded regions within these clouds where newborn stars form. These capabilities make it an important tool in the study of developing stars.

  • Pillars of Star Formation

    Hubble’s observations of nebulae reveal bizarre landscapes sculpted by radiation from young, exceptionally bright stars. The observations reveal the violent process of star birth that produces intense ultraviolet radiation and shock fronts. The radiation clears out cavities in stellar nursery clouds and erodes material from giant gas pillars that are incubators for fledgling stars.

    Hubble Captures View of ‘Mystic Mountain’

    The Mystic Mountain is seen as a chaotic pillar of colorful gas and dust, narrowing toward the top of the image. The dust and gas is mostly yellow, brown, and orange, all jutting against a hazy purple and blue background with a few pink stars.
    Dubbed “Mystic Mountain,” this is a region of the much more extensive Carina Nebula. In it, towers of cool hydrogen gas laced with dust are seen to rise along the nebula’s wall. At the top, a three-light-year-tall pillar of gas and dust is being eaten away by the brilliant light and winds from nearby stars. The pillar is also being pushed apart from within, as infant stars buried inside it fire off jets of gas that can be seen streaming left and right from the tips of the peaks.
    NASA, ESA, and M. Livio and the Hubble 20th Anniversary Team (STScI)
Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center; Producer & Director: James Leigh

  • Jet Blasts from Young Stars

    Hubble can capture energetic jets of glowing gas from young stars in unprecedented detail. These jets, called Herbig-Haro objects, are a byproduct of gas swirling into newly forming stars. The jets form when the star’s magnetic field channels gas toward the spinning star’s poles, where it shoots out at supersonic speeds in opposing directions. Hubble’s longevity allows astronomers to observe Herbig-Haro objects over time. These observations show us how the jets evolve as they travel through the interstellar medium. Measuring and studying the motions and changes in shape of Herbig-Haro objects helps astronomers untangle the complicated physical processes that form them, while also providing clues about the environment in which newborn stars develop.

    Hubble Movies Provide Unprecedented View of Supersonic Jets From Young Stars

    Rusty yellow clouds and dark brown clouds fill the scene. A bright jet stretches from lower left to upper right.
    Herbig-Haro Jet HH24
    NASA and ESA, D. Padgett (GSFC), T. Megeath (University of Toledo), and B. Reipurth (University of Hawaii)
Glowing, clumpy streams of material moving left and right. Left side of the image is a bright-blue cloud slowly moving further to the left. Extending from the blue cloud is a tenuous strand of material moving toward the right. It appears to connect to a bright-white cloud at far right. This white cloud is also moving further to the right
The glowing, clumpy streams of material shown moving left and right in this Hubble image are the signposts of star birth. Collectively named Herbig-Haro 47 (HH 47), the speedy outflows have been ejected episodically, like salvos from a cannon, from a young star in the center of the image that is hidden by dust. As they move through space, these outflows create bow shocks and ripples as they collide into other clouds of material in the neighborhood of the star.
NASA, ESA, P. Hartigan (Rice University), and G. Bacon (STScI)
Glowing, clumpy streams of material moving left and right. Left side of the image is a small blue-white cloud slowly moving further to the left. Extending from the blue cloud is a strand of clumpy orange gas moving toward the right.
This series of observations by Hubble documents changes in a powerful jet called Herbig-Haro 34 (HH 34) located in the Orion Nebula.
NASA, ESA, P. Hartigan (Rice University), and G. Bacon (STScI)
Colorful nebulae are signposts of star formation. Those beautiful clouds shine by the light of enormous young stars within them.
NASA GSFC; Director, Producer, and Editor: James Leigh

Hubble Science Highlights

Discover the breadth and depth of Hubble's exciting discoveries!

Hubble image left to right: Jupiter, Uranus, Saturn, Neptune

Studying the Planets and Moons

Hubble’s systematic observations chart the ever-changing environments of our solar system’s planets and their moons. 

animation of a binary asteroid with a shifting tail

Tracking Evolution in the Asteroid Belt

These conglomerates of rock and ice may hold clues to the early solar system.

Three views of Pluto. Three mottled circles in colors of yellow, grey, rusty-orange, and black.

Uncovering Icy Objects in the Kuiper Belt

Hubble’s discoveries helped NASA plan the New Horizon spacecraft’s flyby of Pluto and beyond.

Hubble image of the Crab Nebula

The Death Throes of Stars

When stars die, they throw off their outer layers, creating the clouds that birth new stars.

Thirty proplyds in a 6 by 5 grid. Each one is unique. Some look like tadpoles, others like bright points in a cloudy disk.

Finding Planetary Construction Zones

Hubble’s sensitivity uncovers the seeds of planets in enormous disks of gas and dust around stars.

Artist's impression of the ten hot Jupiter exoplanets. Two rows of exoplanet illustrations. There are 5 planets of varying sizes, colors, and atmospheric features in each row.

Recognizing Worlds Beyond Our Sun

Hubble can detect and measure the basic organic components for life on planets orbiting other stars

Hubble view of an expanding halo of light around star v838 monocerotis

Seeing Light Echoes

Like ripples on a pond, pulses of light reverberate through cosmic clouds forming echoes of light.

Hubble Ultra Deep Field image

Tracing the Growth of Galaxies

Hubble’s Deep Field observations are instrumental in tracing the growth of galaxies.

Comma shaped curved cloud of gases in bright white edged with bright-pink star forming regions, and threaded with rusty-brown tendrils of dust at center and throughout the comma shaped merger. All set against the black of deep space.

Galaxy Details and Mergers

Galaxies evolve through gravitational interaction with their neighbors, creating a menagerie of forms.

Computer simulation of a supermassive black hole at the core of a galaxy. Center is a black circle. Surrounding the black circle are arcs of red, blue, orange, and white. Further out from the circle are blotches of red, blue, orange, and white representing celestial objects.

Monster Black Holes are Everywhere

Supermassive black holes lie at the heart of nearly every galaxy.

Six Hubble images in a grid of three across and two down. Each is a gamma-ray burst in a host galaxy. The images are orange-red and white with hints of yellow.

Homing in on Cosmic Explosions

Hubble helps astronomers better understand and define some of the largest explosions in the universe.

Cepheid star in Andromeda galaxy (Hubble observations)

Discovering the Runaway Universe

Our cosmos is growing, and that expansion rate is accelerating.

A field of galaxies along with the curved arcs of gravitationally lensed galaxies.

Focusing in on Gravitational Lenses

Gravitational lenses are ‘Nature’s Boost’, expanding our view deeper into space and farther back in time.

A cluster of galaxies fills the frame. A purple glow around the largest concentrations of galaxies indicates the distribution of dark matter.

Shining a Light on Dark Matter

The gravitational pull of dark matter guides the formation of everything we can see in the universe.

Top: Three views going back in time show slices of the cosmos. Bottom: A computer simulated, 3-D map of the distribution of dark matter.

Mapping the Cosmic Web

Filaments and sheets of matter create an interconnected web that forms the large-scale structure of the universe.