Trifid Nebula (Wide Field Camera 3 Image)

The colors in this image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope tell a story about density in the Trifid Nebula, a star-forming region about 5,000 light-years from Earth. The top left, where it is bright blue, has the smallest amount of dust. Here, powerful ultraviolet light stripped electrons from nearby gas, creating a glow, with winds creating a bubble by clearing out surrounding dust.

An example of active cloud destruction is toward the top of the head-shaped area with two “horns.” Bright yellow gas streams upward where gas and dust are being destroyed.

Thicker dust appears dark brown, like mud. In the far-right corner, which is nearly pitch black, the dust is the densest.

Fully formed stars — bright orange orbs — are scattered across the scene. Their light and stellar winds have also cleared the immediate areas around them.

Over millions of years, the gas and dust that make up this nebula (also known as Messier 20 or M20 ) will disappear and only stars will remain.

Compare the 2026 view to Hubble's 1997 observation.

About the colours

These images were acquired by the WFC3/UVIS instrument on Hubble. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to a monochromatic (grayscale) image. In this case, the assigned colors are: Blue: F502N, Green: F656N, Red: F673N

About the data

These images were created with Hubble data from proposal: 18209 (C. Britt).