Rosette Nebula Gives Birth to Stars

This 2010 image from the Herschel Space Observatory shows dust clouds associated with the Rosette Nebula, a stellar nursery about 5,000 light-years from Earth in the Monoceros, or Unicorn, constellation. Herschel collected the infrared light given out by dust. The bright smudges are dusty cocoons containing massive embryonic stars, which will grow up to 10 times the mass of our Sun. The small spots near the center of the image are lower mass stellar embryos. The nebula itself is located to the right of the picture, along with its massive cluster of stars.

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Image Credit: ESA and the PACS, SPIRE & HSC consortia, F. Motte (AIM Saclay,CEA/IRFU – CNRS/INSU – U.ParisDidedrot) for the HOBYS key programme