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RCW 120

A faint ring of gray clouds breaks at the top, looking like horns extending upward. Inside the left side and lower part of the gray ring is a thick blue cloud. A ribbon of red overlaps part of the blue cloud on the left side, but also extends just outside the gray clouds. All of this is on a black background dotted with star light.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SOFIA
Published: June 4, 2021

The ring-shaped clouds around the nebula RCW 120 were detected by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope in this composite image. NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) measured the glowing gas shown in red and blue to study the nebula’s expansion speed and determine its age.

More information: https://blogs.nasa.gov/sofia/2021/06/04/science-result-surprisingly-young-nebula-hints-at-formation-of-stars-in-the-early-universe/

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