{"id":936215,"date":"2026-05-04T02:49:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T02:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/936215\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T02:49:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T02:49:15","slug":"apod-2026-may-3-trifid-pillars-and-jets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/936215\/","title":{"rendered":"APOD: 2026 May 3 \u2013 Trifid Pillars and Jets"},"content":{"rendered":"

APOD: 2026 May 3 \u2013 Trifid Pillars and Jets <\/p>\n

Discover the cosmos!<\/a>
\nEach day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.\n<\/p>\n

2026 May 3
\n

\n\"A<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

Trifid Pillars and Jets <\/b>
Image Credit: <\/b>
\nNASA<\/a>,
\nESA<\/a>,
\nSTScI<\/a>;
\nProcessing:
\nJ. DePasquale<\/a>
\n(STScI<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Explanation: <\/b>
\nDust pillars are like
\ninterstellar mountains<\/a>. <\/p>\n

They survive because they are more dense than their
\nsurroundings, but they are slowly being
\neroded away<\/a>
\nby a hostile environment. <\/p>\n

Visible in the
\nfeatured picture<\/a> by the
\nHubble Space Telescope<\/a>
\nis the end of a huge gas and dust pillar in the
\nTrifid Nebula<\/a> (M20),
\npunctuated by a smaller pillar pointing up and an unusual
\njet<\/a> pointing to the upper left. <\/p>\n

Many of the bright dots are
\nnewly formed stars<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A star near the small pillar’s end is slowly being stripped of its
\naccreting gas<\/a>
\nby radiation from a tremendously brighter
\nstar<\/a> situated off the
\ntop of the image. <\/p>\n

The jet extends<\/a> nearly a
\nlight-year<\/a> and would
\nnot be visible without external illumination. <\/p>\n

As gas and dust<\/a>
\nevaporate from the pillars, the
\nhidden<\/a> stellar source of this
\njet<\/a> will likely be uncovered,
\npossibly over the next 20,000 years.<\/p>\n

Explore the Universe: <\/b>
\nRandom APOD Generator<\/a>
Tomorrow’s picture: <\/b>inside Earth<\/a> <\/p>\n

<<\/a>
\n| Archive<\/a>
\n| Submissions<\/a>
\n| Index<\/a>
\n| Search<\/a>
\n| Calendar<\/a>
\n| RSS<\/a>
\n| Education<\/a>
\n| About APOD<\/a>
\n| Discuss<\/a>
\n| ><\/a><\/p>\n

\n Authors & editors: <\/b>
\nRobert Nemiroff<\/a>
\n(MTU<\/a>) &
\nJerry Bonnell<\/a> (UMCP<\/a>)
NASA Official: <\/b> Amber Straughn
\nSpecific rights apply<\/a>.
NASA Web Privacy<\/a>,
\nAccessibility<\/a>,
\nNotices<\/a>;
A service of:<\/b>
\nASD<\/a> at
\nNASA<\/a> \/
\nGSFC<\/a>,
\n
NASA Science Activation<\/a>
\n
&<\/b> Michigan Tech. U.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"APOD: 2026 May 3 \u2013 Trifid Pillars and Jets Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":936216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3844],"tags":[261679,95355,70,413,261678,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-936215","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-dust-pillar","9":"tag-jet","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-space","12":"tag-trifid","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116514034884343213","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936215","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=936215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/936216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=936215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=936215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=936215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}