Hubble regularly captures some of the best space photos out there, and with this latest one of a star-filled nebula, it's done that once more. We've sung the praises of Hubble numerous times in these articles — and for good reason. Over the last 31 years, Hubble has been an incredible tool for the space and science communities. Whether it's the endless photos Hubble's captured or valuable data it's revealed about the universe, space exploration wouldn't be where it is today with Hubble.

Looking back at some of the Hubble photos NASA's shared in 2021 alone, there are a lot of gorgeous images to sift through. A couple of days ago, NASA published a picture of a dark nebula causing numerous nearby stars to seemingly disappear. Another recent photo revealed a young protostar (a star in one of its earliest forms) forming amidst a beautiful blue gas. With new Hubble photos shared almost every day, there's always some incredible space picture for us to fawn over.

With this latest Hubble picture, NASA's making sure to keep our jaws securely on the floor. The above image was published on November 16 on NASA's Hubble blog. It showcases a gorgeous nebula with numerous stars hanging out around it. Some stars in the distance appear orange and quite faint, whereas others are noticeably brighter and have a distinct blue/white hue. The picture on its own is beyond impressive, but so is the explanation about what it is we're looking at.

Why These Blue Stars Are So Interesting


According to NASA, this is a nebula known as G035.20-0.74 living in the Aquila constellation. The nebula is famous for producing a tremendous amount of stars — specifically, B-Type stars. NASA describes these as "hot, young, blue stars" that get up to five times hotter than the Sun in our Solar System. That's why all of the blue stars in the photo stick out as much as they do.

When it stumbled across this scene, Hubble was tasked with looking for a large protostar blasting out "jets of glowing gas." These jets are known to form during the creation process of a new star as it collects huge amounts of gas. Astronomers know that these jets play some kind of role in a star's formation, but what remained unclear was if these jets impacted the birth of large B-Type stars the same way they do with lower-mass ones.

Considering jets usually last for just 100,000 years and are much rarer for massive B-Type stars, this was a pretty exciting discovery for NASA. As it turns out, jets for these massive stars are very similar to low-mass ones. After studying the observations Hubble made of this nebula, NASA concluded that "the mechanism creating the light emitted by these jets is similar in young stars of different masses, up to 10 times the mass of the Sun." This is a prime example of why Hubble's observations are so important. They result in beautiful images, sure, but they also offer unmatched insight so we can learn more about the universe we live in. If you ask us, that's the best win-win out there.