A supercomputer was used to create this animation of a flight through the protoplanetary disks in the Orion Nebula. This site of active star formation is located some 450 parsecs (1500 light-years) from Earth. The animation shows numerous young stars with protoplanetary disks, or proplyds. These disks are being eroded away by intense ultraviolet radiation from the Trapezium, a group of four luminous stars at the center of the nebula. (The Trapezium is visible at the end of the animation.)

(Adapted from San Diego Supercomputer Center. Credits: David R. Nadeau, Jon Genetti, San Diego Supercomputer Center, UCSD. Carter Emmart, Erik Wesselak, Dennis Davidson, Hayden Planetarium, American Museum of Natural History, New York. C. R. O'Dell and Zheng Wen, Rice University.)