NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured a cosmic reef 163,000 light years from Earth in the constellation Dorado. These nebulae are part of a vast star-forming region called the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way filled with massive stars.

Stars near the centre of the image are about 10 to 20 times the size of our Sun, and their intense radiation heats dense gases such as oxygen, seen in light blue, up to 20,000°F (11,000°C). Hydrogen and nitrogen have a relatively lower temperature and appear red in colour. The nebula in the lower left was formed when a star 200,000 times brighter than our Sun ejected gas in a series of eruptive events.

Image description:

An image is split in two. In the lower left part of the first image, a bright blue ring appears with a small blue dot in the centre, fading slightly in all directions. Waves of red and orange gas ripple in an arc from top left to top right. A light blue centre emerges from the sea of red and several bright white dots glow. In the upper right, dark blue gas emanates from the blackness of space.

Doesn't it look like a game of water and fire?