Hubble Views a Cloud-Filled, Starry Scene

Bright, blue-white stars of the open cluster BSDL 2757 pierce through the rusty-red tones of gas and dust clouds in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image.

Hubble captured the scene as part of a study looking at how dust in the Large Magellanic Cloud obscures ultraviolet light in four different star-forming regions of this nearby, irregular galaxy. The researchers studied growing, early-stage stars that are still accumulating mass from the clouds that envelop them.

As gas and dust spirals toward a budding, young star, it releases ultraviolet light. By analyzing how this light interacts with dust, astronomers can better understand the dust’s properties in different environments.

The colors blue, green, and orange in this image represent their respective colors in the visible light spectrum. The color red represents light in the near-infrared part of the spectrum.

Image credit: NASA, ESA, and L. Bianchi (Johns Hopkins University); Processing: G. Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America) larger image