Newborn stars are surrounded by disks of gas and dust within which planets are born, known as protoplanetary disks. In the Orion Nebula, the brightest and most massive stars emit intense ultraviolet radiation that illuminates protoplanetary disks, allowing them to be photographed in unusual detail. The striking images of these UV-illuminated protoplanetary disks, called proplyds, were one of the first major discoveries by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope decades ago.
