Deep inside the Orion Nebula, an epic battle of stellar supremacy is being duked out. A baby star inside the famed stellar nursery is dictating how and where its unborn siblings can spark to life — if it allows them to live at all.

Using NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) — a huge 106-inch (2.7-meter) diameter telescope that is flown inside the fuselage of a modified Boeing 747SP jetliner — astronomers can get a crystal-clear view of the nebula and view the otherwise invisible stars in infrared wavelengths. If the same telescope was used on the ground, the water vapor in our atmosphere would absorb the infrared light. So, as SOFIA flies above 99 percent of our atmosphere, it’s almost as good as having that telescope in space, minus the launch costs.