cwnl:
Omega M17
Smoky Nebula’s Bright Pink Heart Shines in New Photo
The spectacular pink and red core of a lively nebula takes center stage in a new photo that exposes the stellar nursery’s eye-catching clouds of gas, dust and newborn stars.
The European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), at the Paranal Observatory in Chile, captured the new image of the Omega Nebula. The portrait is one of the sharpest ever taken of this object from a ground-based observatory, according to ESO officials.
This stellar breeding ground lies approximately 6,500 light-years away from Earth, in the direction of the constellation of Sagittarius (The Archer). The Omega nebula is a popular target of study for astronomers because it is one of the youngest and most active stellar nurseries for massive stars inside the Milky Way galaxy.
(via itsfullofstars)
