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.

From New York Times

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.

From Science Daily

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.

From Science Daily

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.

From Scientific American

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.

From Scientific American