Young stellar object

Hey there little buddy! Do you know what a star is? It's a really big ball of burning gas that gives off light and heat. Well, sometimes stars don't look like stars at first. That's because they're just babies! They're called "young stellar objects."

You see, little stars are formed when clouds of gas and dust, called nebulae, collapse under their own gravity. It's kind of like how a ball of dough gets smaller when you squish it with your hands. But instead of making a flat pizza, the material in the nebula gets really hot and starts to glow, becoming a brand new star!

Now, these young stellar objects can look different depending on how far along they are in their development. Some of them are just little balls of gas that are still growing and haven't even started to shine yet. Others are surrounded by disks of dust and gas, kind of like a little cocoon. These disks can eventually turn into planets!

Scientists use special telescopes to study these young stellar objects and learn more about how stars and planets form. It's like looking at baby pictures of the universe!