NASA / ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope commemorates its 33rd anniversary with an image of NGC 1333, a star forming region in the Perseus molecular cloud. Located approximately 960 light-years away, Hubble had to peer through a veil of dust on the edge of a massive cloud of cold molecular hydrogen.
The dark area where a reddish glow radiates is actually ionized hydrogen. This area may look like a fireworks show, but it’s caused by pencil-thin jets shooting out from newly forming stars outside the frame of view. These stars are encapsulated by circumstellar disks, which may eventually create planetary systems.
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This view offers an example of the time when our Sun and planets formed inside such a dusty molecular cloud, 4.6 billion years ago. Our Sun didn’t form in isolation but was instead embedded inside a mosh pit of frantic stellar birth, perhaps even more energetic and massive than NGC 1333,” said NASA.
