The Hubble space telescope has captured a cosmic reef 163,000 light years from Earth in the constellation Dorado. The nebulae in these spectacular images are part of a vast star-forming region called the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the amanway filled with massive stars.

The stars near the centre of the image are about 10 to 20 times the size of our Sun. Their intense radiation heats the dense gases around them, such as oxygen, which appears light blue in colour, up to 11,000 degrees Celsius. Hydrogen and nitrogen have a relatively lower temperature and are seen in red. The nebula in the lower left was formed when a star 200 times brighter than our Sun spewed out gas in a series of eruptions.

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 beautiful?