While the clouds of Earth are composed of water droplets and ice crystals, those out in the cosmos are made of different stuff entirely. Scattered throughout most galaxies are interstellar clouds made of dust and gases – like this one, CB 130-3, spotted by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in the direction of the constellation Serpens. It is a particularly dense cloud – an object known as a dense core – and it is where a new star is in the process of being born.

The dark middle of the cloud is collapsing under its own gravitational attraction. Eventually, the dust and gases here will become so dense and hot that they will initiate hydrogen fusion and start to shine. CB 130-3 may be on the verge of stardom, but it’ll take a while to become fully fledged. A star the size of our Sun, after all, took around 50 million years to grow up.

ESA/Hubble, NASA & STScI, C. Britt, T. Huard, A. Pagan.