A close-up from Messier 78, a vibrant nursery of star formation enveloped in a shroud of interstellar dust, and its surroundings. This image illustrates how newly forming stars create a 'cavity' in the surrounding molecular cloud by generating winds of charged particles. The colours relate to ionised atomic hydrogen (the main component of the cloud; blue) and the absorption and scattering of light by dust grains (red).
The image shows hundreds of stars, some brighter than others. The stars seem to light up their cloud-like surroundings in purple. A darker structure spans the image in an arch from upper left to bottom right. The bottom of this arch runs into dense clouds forming the darkest part of the image.
Netherlands
Netherlands
Germany
Netherlands
Netherlands
Netherlands
Germany
Netherlands
Netherlands
Netherlands
Netherlands
Germany