Spot the differences. To celebrate its 36th birthday, the Hubble Space Telescope revisited a region of the Trifid Nebula, a ‘stellar nursery’ around 1,500 parsecs (5,000 light years) away.
Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, Leah Hustak (STScI), Christian Nieves (STScI) (Atmospheric classical music can be heard in this video. There are no dialogue or sound effects.)
Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, Leah Hustak (STScI), Christian Nieves (STScI) (Atmospheric classical music can be heard in this video. There are no dialogue or sound effects.)
Compared with Hubble’s first shot of the nebula, taken in 1997, the new shot reveals subtle changes in the cloud of gas and dust — such as the expansion of a jet of plasma known to be ejected periodically by a still-forming star (at the top left of the cloud). This demonstrates how even objects of literally astronomical size can evolve over just a few decades.
