--- ---  # Shhhh! Don't Disturb the Baby Stars  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Mar 17, 2014 3:31 PM UTC  An infrared image of a small portion of the Monkey Head Nebula (also known as NGC 2174 and Sharpless Sh2-252) captured by the Hubble telescope, released on March 17, 2014\. The nebula is a star-forming region that hosts dusky dust clouds silhouetted against glowing gas. An infrared image of a small portion of the Monkey Head Nebula (also known as NGC 2174 and Sharpless Sh2-252) captured by the Hubble telescope, released on March 17, 2014\. The nebula is a star-forming region that hosts dusky dust clouds silhouetted against glowing gas.NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Mar 17, 2014 3:31 PM UTC The Hubble Space Telescope has given us a gift on the occasion of its own 24th birthday. Like nearly all of the riches Hubble has showered down on us over nearly a quarter of a century, the newest one is a picture—this time of the wonderfully named Monkey Head Nebula, 6,400 light years from Earth. The region of the nebula that’s shown is a stellar nursery, a place new stars churn into existence. As they release energy, the infant suns blow off cosmic dust (at the right of the image); the ultraviolet light they generate sculpts the remaining dust into pillars. Space, as Hubble has revealed again and again, is a place of sublime violence—and sublime beauty too. Hubble Photographs Gorgeous Cosmic Nursery ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/27089/hubble-star-nursery-picture/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/27089/hubble-star-nursery-picture/"},"headline":"Shhhh! Don't Disturb the Baby Stars","datePublished":"2014-03-17T15:31:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T06:48:03.682Z","description":"The Hubble Space Telescope has given us a gift on the occasion of its own 24th birthday. Like nearly all of the riches Hubble has...","url":"https://time.com/27089/hubble-star-nursery-picture/","keywords":["Space","NASA","photography"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt454cd8ac24ae464e/698685c01eebf7163f36fdb8/hubble-anniversary-star-factory.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jeffrey Kluger","jobTitle":"Editor at Large","url":"https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt454cd8ac24ae464e/698685c01eebf7163f36fdb8/hubble-anniversary-star-factory.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"An infrared image of a small portion of the Monkey Head Nebula (also known as NGC 2174 and Sharpless Sh2-252) captured by the Hubble telescope, released on March 17, 2014.","caption":"An infrared image of a small portion of the Monkey Head Nebula (also known as NGC 2174 and Sharpless Sh2-252) captured by the Hubble telescope, released on March 17, 2014.","creditText":"NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/space/","name":"Space"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/27089/hubble-star-nursery-picture/","name":"Shhhh! Don't Disturb the Baby Stars"}}]}] ```