stellar nursery

[stel-er nur-suh-ree]

noun

Astronomy.

1. a molecular cloud in which new stars are being formed.

Word History and Origins

Origin of stellar nursery¹

First recorded in 1905–10

Example Sentences

Euclid also focused on Messier 78, a stellar nursery.

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Second, these results pose a crucial challenge to the concept of chemical tagging -- using chemical composition to identify stars that came from the same environment or stellar nursery -- by showing that stars with different chemical compositions can still have the same origin.

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To get to the bottom of this mysterious phenomenon, the team set their sights on MC 27, a stellar nursery located approximately 450 light-years from earth.

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Even when viewed using binoculars, the nebula appears to be fuzzy, but with a small telescope its true nature starts to shine through: the Orion nebula isn’t merely a gas cloud; it’s also an immense stellar nursery, more than two dozen light-years across, where stars are being born.

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The answer is that we’re not exactly sure how Jupiter formed, and the Orion nebula’s stellar nursery nurtures not only stars but also newborn planets, which are amenable to JWST’s prying infrared eye.

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