Day 2 of the 2025 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: a stellar nursery. Reflection nebula GN 04.32.8 is part of the stellar nursery called the Taurus Molecular Cloud, roughly 480 light-years from Earth. Enormous clouds of dust surround a group of chaotic young stars, illuminated by their starlight. The small orange blob to the right of center is a newly formed protostar, hidden in a protoplanetary disk that obstructs some of its light, similar to the subject of yesterday’s calendar image.

See the full advent calendar here, where a new image will be revealed each day until December 25.