A Star Is Born Stars are continually being born in our galaxy and others, as dense concentrations of gas and dust contract under their own gravitational forces. As the material falls inward, it eventually becomes hot enough to begin nuclear fusion. At that point, the star 'turns on', and its radiation begins to blow the remaining dust and gas away. Our own sun was formed this way, some 5 billion years ago. Much of the gas and dust that forms new stars contains heavier elements that were manufactured in supergiant stars which exploded long ago, (called supernovas), scattering their insides across space. Born only about 100,000 years ago, material streaming out from this newborn star has formed the nebula called Sharpless 106. A large disk of dust and gas gives the nebula an hourglass shape, and emits light after being ionized by an infrared source somewhere near the centre. It also reflects light from the newborn star. This image also reveals hundreds of low-mass brown dwarf stars, hidden in the nebula's gas. This entire nebula spans about 2 light-years, and lies about 2000 light-years away from us, toward the constellation of Cygnus. In nearby galaxy NGC 6822, this glowing nebula surrounds bright, massive, newborn stars. A mere 4 million years old, these stars condensed from that galaxy's interstellar gas and dust clouds. This nebula is very similar to the Orion Nebula within our own galaxy, but it is much brighter ...at a distance of 1.6 million light-years, it is about 1,000 times farther away. It is also ten times larger, about 100 light years across. Main Page