Future Stars

Streamers of extremely cold dust glow red in this composite image of the Orion Nebula. The blue shows infrared wavelengths, while red and orange show submillimeter wavelengths, which are a type of radio waves. The dust is so cold that it doesn't produce other forms of energy, so it's invisible to most telescopes. The cold clouds may someday collapse to form even more new stars in the nebula, which is one of the busiest stellar nurseries in the galaxy. The nebula is illuminated by a small cluster of bright stars (at top left) known as the Trapezium. These young, hot stars are fated to explode as supernovae. [SO/H. Drass/ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/A. Hacar]