Sunny Priyan
A small, dense cloud of gas and dust called CB 130-3 blots out the center of this Hubble Space Telescope image.
Credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA & STScI
CB 130-3 is an object known as a dense core, a compact agglomeration of gas and dust.
Credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA & STScI
This particular dense core is in the constellation Serpens and seems to billow across a field of background stars.
Image Credit: Pixabay
Dense cores like CB 130-3 are the birthplaces of stars and are of particular interest to astronomers.
Image Credit: Pixabay
During the collapse of these cores, enough mass can accumulate in one place to reach the temperatures and densities required to ignite hydrogen fusion, marking the birth of a new star.
Image Credit: Pixabay
A compact object teetering on the brink of becoming a star is embedded deep within CB 130-3.
Image Credit: Pixabay