This cloud of gas and dust is being deleted. Likely, within a few million years, the intense light from bright stars will have boiled it away completely. The cloud has broken off of part of the Carina Nebula, a star forming region about 8000 light years away. Newly formed stars are visible nearby, their images reddened by blue light being preferentially scattered by the pervasive dust. This image spans about two light years and was taken by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope in 1999.
CREDIT: Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), N. Walborn (STScI) & R. Barbß (La Plata Obs.), NASA.
SOURCE: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030630.html
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PREPARED BY: Adrian Pingstone in November 2003.

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