Astronomy

This newly released image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope shows thousands of sparkling young stars nestled within the giant nebula NGC 3603, surrounded by a vast region of dust and gas. This stellar “jewel box” is one of the most massive young star clusters in the Milky Way Galaxy. NGC 3603 is a prominent star-forming region in the Carina spiral arm of the Milky Way, about 20,000 light-years away. The image also reveals stages in the stars’ life cycle.

This image is a composite of many separate exposures made by the ACS instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope using several different filters. Three filters were used to sample broad wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic image. In this case, the assigned colors are blue, green and red.

Image credits: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration

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