Credit: Credit for Hubble Image: NASA, ESA, N. Smith (University of California, Berkeley), and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) Credit for CTIO Image: N. Smith (University of California, Berkeley) and NOAO/AURA/NSF

The tadpole-looking feature in the center of this image is a nodule of cold hydrogen gas laced with dust. The image offers circumstantial evidence that a young star is being born inside the placental cloud. The diagonal feature may be caused by twin jets of gas blasting away from the hidden star. They are slamming into neighboring gas to create a pair of bow shocks on either side of the globule. The twisted "tail" on the back of the globule may be evidence for a wobbling jet of material being blasted from the suspected star. This image is from a mosaic of the Carina Nebula assembled from 48 frames taken with the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys.

Provider: Space Telescope Science Institute

Image Source: https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2007/news-2007-16

Curator: STScI, Baltimore, MD, USA

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