Hubble marks 36th anniversary with a vivid new view of the Trifid Nebula

To celebrate 36 years in space, the Hubble Space Telescope released a new high‑resolution, color image of the Trifid Nebula (Messier 20), focusing on a small region at the end of one of its dust lanes. The scene features a dense gas pillar with a recently formed star at its tip and a separate, leftward spike that is the Herbig–Haro jet HH 399 from a growing protostar. The image illustrates how intense radiation and stellar winds sculpt star‑forming regions, offering a detailed look at the ongoing process of star birth, and adds to Hubble’s long legacy of observations since its 1990 launch.