¿ Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2020 December 22 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. Trifid Pillars and Jets Image Credit: [3]NASA, [4]ESA, [5]Hubble Space Telescope, [6]HLA; Processing: [7]Advait Mehla Explanation: Dust pillars are like [8]interstellar mountains. They survive because they are more dense than their surroundings, but they are being slowly [9]eroded away by a hostile environment. Visible in the featured picture is the end of a huge gas and dust pillar in the [10]Trifid Nebula ([11]M20), punctuated by a smaller pillar pointing up and an unusual [12]jet pointing to the left. Many of the dots are newly formed low-mass stars. A star near the small pillar's end is slowly being stripped of its [13]accreting gas by radiation from a tremendously brighter star situated off the top of the image. The jet extends nearly a [14]light-year and would not be visible without external illumination. As gas and [15]dust evaporate from the pillars, the hidden stellar source of this [16]jet will likely be uncovered, possibly over the next 20,000 years. Growing Gallery: [17]Notable images of the Great Conjunction submitted to APOD Tomorrow's picture: open space __________________________________________________________________ [18]< | [19]Archive | [20]Submissions | [21]Index | [22]Search | [23]Calendar | [24]RSS | [25]Education | [26]About APOD | [27]Discuss | [28]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [29]Robert Nemiroff ([30]MTU) & [31]Jerry Bonnell ([32]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [33]Specific rights apply. [34]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [35]ASD at [36]NASA / [37]GSFC & [38]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2012/Trifid_HubbleMehla_1446.jpg 3. https://www.nasa.gov/ 4. https://www.esa.int/ 5. https://www.stsci.edu/hst 6. https://hla.stsci.edu/ 7. https://www.instagram.com/_advaitm_/ 8. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap201206.html 9. https://youtu.be/ChEHQUMEkXw 10. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/messier-20-the-trifid-nebula 11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trifid_Nebula 12. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap970619.html 13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap060528.html 14. https://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cosmic_distance.html 15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap030706.html 16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140204.html 17. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=APOD.Sky&set=a.3211133262324204 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap201221.html 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 22. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 27. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=201222 28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap201223.html 29. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 30. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 31. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 32. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 33. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 34. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 35. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 36. https://www.nasa.gov/ 37. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 38. http://www.mtu.edu/