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The image celebrates Hubble\u2019s 36th year in space, a milestone<\/a> that was reached on April 24. It reveals clouds of gas and dust that have been shaped by strong stellar winds for at least 300,000 years.<\/p>\n The winds push and carve through space, forming huge bubbles and packing material together. <\/p>\n That pressure sparks new stars into existence. It may look quiet at first, but there\u2019s a lot going on.<\/p>\n Revisiting a nebula, decades later<\/p>\n Hubble first photographed this same region in 1997. Nearly three decades later, it has returned with sharper tools and a wider view. <\/p>\n This time, the telescope\u2019s upgraded camera picks up subtle changes that were not visible before.<\/p>\n Scientists now track how gas flows and jets move across the nebula. That matters because it shows how young stars<\/a> grow and interact with their surroundings. <\/p>\n Watching the same place over time turns a still image into something closer to a story.<\/p>\n Cloud that resembles a sea slug<\/p>\n The focus of this new image is a strange, curved cloud that resembles a sea slug. Scientists nicknamed it the \u201cCosmic Sea Lemon.\u201d <\/p>\n The cloud has a rounded head and a long, wavy body made of thick dust and gas. Inside that structure, a young protostar shoots out jets of plasma. <\/p>\n One of these jets stretches from what looks like a horn on the left side of the cloud. It has been erupting in bursts for centuries.<\/p>\n On the opposite side, a matching counter jet leaves behind jagged streaks, tracing the star\u2019s activity over time.<\/p>\n Another young star sits near the right side of the cloud. It is harder to see, but a faint red dot and a tiny jet give it away. <\/p>\n Around it, a green arc hints that intense radiation<\/a> from nearby stars is slowly stripping away its surrounding disk. That activity suggests the star is close to finishing its formation.<\/p>\n Signs of hidden activity<\/p>\n Not all of the action is easy to spot. Near the center of the image, a sharp, angled streak shifts position between observations.<\/p>\n That movement likely comes from another jet, fired by a star still buried deep in dust.<\/p>\n Off to the left, a thin pillar of gas and dust stands its ground. Much of its material has already been blown away, but its densest core remains. <\/p>\n These pockets of resistance often mark places where new stars may still form.<\/p>\n The darkest area sits in the far-right corner. There, thick dust blocks most visible light. <\/p>\n Some stars appear in front of this patch, but they may not belong to the nebula at all. They could simply lie closer to Earth, lining up by chance.<\/p>\n A colorful but harsh environment<\/p>\n The colors in the image reveal how radiation from massive stars shapes the region.<\/p>\n Near the top left, blue tones dominate where strong ultraviolet light has stripped electrons from gas. That process creates a glowing effect and clears out surrounding dust.<\/p>\n Elsewhere, yellow streams rise where radiation slams into denser material. Over time, this constant exposure breaks down gas clouds. <\/p>\n It is a slow process that will eventually erase much of the nebula. What remains will be a cluster of fully formed stars.<\/p>\n Bright orange points scattered across the scene mark stars that have already cleared their surroundings. They stand out as finished products in a space still under construction.<\/p>\n A telescope that keeps delivering<\/p>\n Hubble\u2019s long life has made this kind of comparison possible. Over 36 years, it has collected more than 1.7 million observations. <\/p>\n Nearly 29,000 astronomers have used data from Hubble<\/a>, producing over 23,000 scientific papers.<\/p>\n In 2025 alone, close to 1,100 papers relied on Hubble\u2019s findings.<\/p>\n The telescope\u2019s reach goes beyond visible light. Hubble also studies ultraviolet and near-infrared wavelengths, giving scientists a broader view of space.<\/p>\n That range helps reveal details hidden from ground-based telescopes<\/a>.<\/p>\n Hubble isn\u2019t working on its own anymore. Since 2022, astronomers have been combining its data with observations from the James Webb Space Telescope. <\/p>\n Webb observes the universe in infrared light, allowing it to reveal details that remain hidden to the Hubble Space Telescope.<\/p>\n The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope<\/a> is set to start scanning huge sections of the sky. Its camera is wide enough to capture the entire Trifid Nebula in one go. <\/p>\n That kind of coverage could reveal new objects that haven\u2019t stood out before.<\/p>\n The proposed Habitable Worlds Observatory would take things even further with a larger mirror and the ability to study different kinds of light. <\/p>\n The mission\u2019s focus is simple but ambitious: find planets like Earth and check if they might support life.<\/p>\n A changing view of the universe<\/p>\n The latest image of the Trifid Nebula shows more than a pretty scene. It captures motion, energy, and time at work. <\/p>\n Gas flows shift, stars grow, and radiation reshapes everything in its path.<\/p>\n Hubble\u2019s return to this region proves that space is not frozen. Even across vast distances, change is constant. And with each new observation, that change becomes a little easier to see.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n Like what you read? Subscribe to our newsletter<\/a> for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates.\u00a0<\/p>\n Check us out on EarthSnap<\/a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls<\/a> and Earth.com.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hubble just captured a new close-up of the Trifid Nebula, a star-forming region about 5,000 light-years from Earth.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":936086,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3844],"tags":[70,413,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-936085","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-space","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116513677214805362","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=936085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/936086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=936085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=936085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=936085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"NASA](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/trifid-nebula_hubble-space-telescope_nasa_1s.webp\")
<\/a>NASA celebrates Hubble\u2019s 36th anniversary with a new image of the Trifid Nebula, a star-forming region it first captured in 1997. Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI). Click image to enlarge.Working with the next generation<\/p>\n