APOD: 2026 May 3 – Trifid Pillars and Jets

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Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2026 May 3

Trifid Pillars and Jets
Image Credit:
NASA,
ESA,
STScI;
Processing:
J. DePasquale
(STScI)

Explanation:
Dust pillars are like
interstellar mountains.

They survive because they are more dense than their
surroundings, but they are slowly being
eroded away
by a hostile environment.

Visible in the
featured picture by the
Hubble Space Telescope
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 upper left.

Many of the bright dots are
newly formed 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.

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Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn
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