Sunny Priyan
This is a Hubble Space Telescope photo of a small portion of the Rosette Nebula, a huge star-forming region spanning 100 light-years across and located 5,200 light-years away.
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI
Hubble zooms into a small portion of the nebula that is only 4 light-years across (the approximate distance between our Sun and the neighboring Alpha Centauri star system).
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI
Dark clouds of hydrogen gas laced with dust are silhouetted across the image.
Image Credit: Pexels
The clouds are being eroded and shaped by the seething radiation from the cluster of larger stars in the center of the nebula (NGC 2440).
Image Credit: Pixabay
An embedded star seen at the tip of a dark cloud in the upper right portion of the image is launching jets of plasma that are crashing into the cold cloud around it.
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI
The resulting shock wave is causing a red glow. The colors come from the presence of hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI