U.S. National Science Foundation

ALT A wide, panoramic view of a dense field of countless tiny, pinpoint stars filling the entire frame like fine dust. Faint, grayish clouds of interstellar dust called galactic cirrus drift like wisps of cotton candy across the scene, creating a subtle, patchy texture over the dark background. Several brighter, prominent stars stand out across the field, most notably a large, brilliant blue star on the upper right surrounded by a soft glowing halo, along with a few other scattered bright blue and warm orange stars.

ALT Lines of code are overlaid onto a background image of a nebula vibrant in color with reds, yellow, and greens. Circles scattered throughout the image call attention to stars detected by the processing pipeline represented by the lines of code. Credit: RubinObs/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage)/H. Schweiker/WIYN