The Hubble Telescope has snapped another image to get photo editors slavering (Wired, National Geographic, Space.com, MSNBC, The Australian). This one is of NGC 3603, a giant nebula in the Milky Way that hosts young stars. Analysis of the nebula, which is 20,000 light-years away from Earth, should provide insights into star formation (press release 1, press release 2).
Violent winds have carved a cavity in the dust and gas surrounding the cluster, revealing a panoply of hot, blue stars. The darkening in the lower left is due to extinction of starlight and interstellar reddening caused by dust clouds in the foreground. In the top right Bok globules – clouds of dust and gas with masses up to fifty times that of the Sun – are visible.
Image: NASA/ ESA/ STScI/Aura