Gas cloud

This is a mid-infrared image of a giant cloud obtained by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. The yellowish wisps to the right are remnants of gas that have been heated and are being driven off by the massive young stars within them, seen in blue. The large-scale collapse of colder gas to form a massive cluster is centered around the bright stars just to the left of the heated wisps. An international team of astronomers used an Australian radio telescope to find the cloud of gas and dust 8,000 light years away in the Southern sky constellation Carina. The cloud is in the early stages of collapsing in on itself, offering astronomers an unusual vista on the first contractions of behemoth star birth.

(NASA/JPL-Caltech)
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