Detected by the orbiting NASA Hubble Space telescope, this cosmic nebula is a cloud of gas and dust that is the birthplace of new stars. Located 5,300 light-years from Earth, the nebula is home to many young, developing stars called protostars, which appear as tiny twinkles in this image.

In this image, obtained with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3, the stars within the nebula's gas cocoon are seen in the near-infrared. The nebula is filled with hydrogen ions excited by the ultraviolet radiation emitted by protostars, and this is the main contributor to the pinkish glow in the image.

Image description:

In a dreamy starscape, a pinkish gas cloud stands out among dark blue swirls. Many stars of various sizes, highlighted by four diffraction spikes, are liberally scattered throughout the image.

We've had a lot of pictures of new star formation regions lately, haven't we? I think that's a very good thing.