APOD: 2020 December 22 - Trifid Pillars and Jets

Belated thank you my friend Maj William W. 'Bill' Price for posting the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) for Tuesday, December 22, 2020 entitled "Trifid Pillars and Jets.

Image: Trifid Pillars and Jets - Image Credit - NASA, ESA, Hubble Space Telescope, HLA; Processing - Advait Mehla

This a marvelous colorized image of this section of God's creation from about 5,000 years ago since the Trifid nebula is about 5,000 light years away from earth

APOD Background
'Explanation: Dust pillars are like interstellar mountains. They survive because they are more dense than their surroundings, but they are being slowly eroded away by a hostile environment. Visible in the featured picture is the end of a huge gas and dust pillar in the Trifid Nebula (M20), punctuated by a smaller pillar pointing up and an unusual jet pointing to the left. Many of the dots are newly formed low-mass stars. A star near the small pillar's end is slowly being stripped of its accreting gas by radiation from a tremendously brighter star situated off the top of the image. The jet extends nearly a light-year and would not be visible without external illumination. As gas and dust evaporate from the pillars, the hidden stellar source of this jet will likely be uncovered, possibly over the next 20,000 years.'

Ursa Major Jam II) Nebula Blues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0hAp86co1c

FYI Maj Robert Thornton Lt Col Charlie Brown COL Mikel J. Burroughs PO1 William "Chip" Nagel Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Sgt Vance Bonds MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D. TSgt David L. SPC Nancy GreenePO2 (Join to see) SSG Michael Noll SMSgt David A Asbury SMSgt Lawrence McCarter MSgt Paul Connors PO1 H Gene Lawrence SPC Michael Terrell SPC Michael Terrell SSG Samuel Kermon

Looks like something in an art gallery.

What an amazing image from the Hubble Space Telescope, Maj William W. 'Bill' Price! Can't wait to see your photos of the conjunction!