Busy Nursery

Thousands of young stars are being born in Cygnus X, one of the largest stellar nurseries in the galaxy, as shown in this infrared image from Spitzer Space Telescope. The image shows bubbles blown by hot young stars, which compress clouds of gas and dust around them, giving birth to more stars. The long finger-like structures are columns of gas and dust that are being eroded by radiation from the hot stars. Many contain starbirth activity at their tips. The white regions, which are the hottest in this false-color depiction, are the most vigorous areas of starbirth. Green represents relatively warm dust, while red is cooler dust and gas. The complex is centered about 4,500 light-years away, in the constellation Cygnus. [NASA/JPL/Caltech/Harvard-Smithsonian CfA]