Starbirth

More than 30 newborn stars highlight this image of a stellar nursery in the constellation Ursa Major, near the Big Dipper. The image was compiled from data gathered by two space-based infrared telescopes. The green, from Spitzer Space Telescope, shows jets of gas and dust spewing away from some of the stars, which are shown in orange or red (from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer). The pink glow comes from clouds of gas and dust around the stars. As the stars settle into maturity, they will blow away the extra gas and dust around them. This region is near the rim of the Milky Way galaxy, where starbirth is much less common than in the galaxy's crowded inner regions. [NASA/JPL/University of Wisconsin]