Free Astronomy Magazine September-October 2023

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2023 reflection nebulae. One stunning ex- ample of these clashing forces is the star-forming interstellar cloud Lupus 3, captured here by the 570-mega- pixel US Department of Energy-fab- ricated Dark Energy Camera at NSF’s NOIRLab’s Cerro Tololo Inter-Ameri- can Observatory in Chile. This star- forming nebula is located about 500 light-years from Earth in the direc- tion of the constellation Lupus (the Wolf). The two blue stars blazing in the center of the sprawling nebula, known as HR 5999 and HR 6000, il- luminate nearby gas and dust, creat- ing the bright blue reflection nebula Bernes 149. These stars grew out of the dark nebula Lupus 3, which stretches like a blanket across the background of stars. This cloud is not just a coal- black cosmic blob, however. It is home to a fleet of infant stars known as T Tauri stars, which will eventually use the material of Lupus 3 to grow into fully fledged stars. by NOIRLab − Charles Blue T he clashing of energy and mat- ter can lead to fantastical sites on Earth, such as glowing au- roras and powerful lightning dis- plays. The same can be said about space, where energy from bright young stars and protostars floods their surroundings, illuminating vast interstellar clouds of dust and gas to create spectacular objects known as Protostars and dark clouds collide in the stellar nursery