Budding stars


A circular, flower-like nebula fills the frame, with a bright, hollow center of soft blue and purple gas surrounded by thick, textured clouds in golden-orange and deep red. Dark, finger-like dust lanes cut into the glowing gas along the inner edges, especially on the right and bottom. A small cluster of bright stars sits near the middle of the cavity, while countless fainter stars and very subtle, reddish wisps of gas dot the darker background around the nebula.

Jeffrey Horne, taken from Nashville, Tennessee

The Rosette Nebula (NGC 2237–9) is a vast star-forming complex about 5,000 light-years away in Monoceros. This portrait combines 200⅓ hours of SHO data taken from Jan. 1 to April 12, 2026, with a 5-inch f/5.6 scope. The extremely deep exposure reveals myriad delicate tendrils within the nebula, where where hot young stars are carving a central cavity in hydrogen-rich clouds. At right lies a line of Bok globules — dense nuggets of dust where stars are forming.