Some of Hubble’s most amazing imagery has documented the formation and evolution of stars, and some of astronomers’ most awkward naming has been applied to this amazing science. In visible light, as we see with our eyes, cold, dark clouds of gas block the light of the stars behind them and the light of the stars forming inside them. As the observed color changes and these clouds are observed in redder and redder colors, we are able to see more details. In a new image of a region of the Coalsack Nebula in Cygnus, Hubble reveals both two newly formed massive stars and also two smudges of star formation.

And here is where the naming of things goes so very wrong.

These two clouds are named Free-floating Evaporating Gaseous Globules or frEGGs, and these frEGGs are good frEGGs, and they are forming stars. Over time, the ultraviolet light of those new stars will blast away the gaseous globules, allowing these stars to hatch from their frEGGs.

This is one of the most ridiculous acronyms we’ve seen in a while, and it is the latest recipient of our BABIES Award; that’s a Bad Acronym or Backronyms in Everyday Science. Kudos to everyone involved in that acronym. You created something thoroughly punny.

More Information

NASA press release