by APOD Robot » Tue Dec 22, 2020 5:05 am
Trifid Pillars and Jets
Explanation: Dust pillars are like
interstellar mountains. They survive because they are more dense than their surroundings, but they are being slowly
eroded away by a hostile environment. Visible in the featured picture is the end of a huge gas and dust pillar in the
Trifid Nebula (
M20), punctuated by a smaller pillar pointing up and an unusual
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
accreting gas by radiation from a tremendously brighter star situated off the top of the image. The jet extends nearly a
light-year and would not be visible without external illumination. As gas and
dust evaporate from the pillars, the hidden stellar source of this
jet will likely be uncovered, possibly over the next 20,000 years.
[url=https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap201222.html] [img]https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/S_201222.jpg[/img] [size=150]Trifid Pillars and Jets[/size][/url]
[b] Explanation: [/b] Dust pillars are like [url=https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap201206.html]interstellar mountains[/url]. They survive because they are more dense than their surroundings, but they are being slowly [url=https://youtu.be/ChEHQUMEkXw]eroded away[/url] by a hostile environment. Visible in the featured picture is the end of a huge gas and dust pillar in the [url=https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/messier-20-the-trifid-nebula]Trifid Nebula[/url] ([url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trifid_Nebula]M20[/url]), punctuated by a smaller pillar pointing up and an unusual [url=https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap970619.html]jet[/url] 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 [url=https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap060528.html]accreting gas[/url] by radiation from a tremendously brighter star situated off the top of the image. The jet extends nearly a [url=https://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cosmic_distance.html]light-year[/url] and would not be visible without external illumination. As gas and [url=https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap030706.html]dust[/url] evaporate from the pillars, the hidden stellar source of this [url=https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140204.html]jet[/url] will likely be uncovered, possibly over the next 20,000 years.
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