The Hubble Space Telescope continues to provide spectacular photographic evidence of how the Universe is developing. This mosaic of images released by NASA shows the 30 Doradus nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud, 170,000 light years from Earth. Thousands of stars are being born here, particularly in the bright star cluster R136. High ultraviolet radiation from the massive, young, hot, stars in R136 causes surrounding gaseous material to glow. R136 contains several dozen of the largest stars yet discovered, each about 100 times the mass of the sun and 10 times as hot. The stars produce intense solar winds which push the gas away from the cluster and compress the inner regions. This, in turn, creates intense pressure which triggers the collapse of parts of the clouds, producing a new star formation around the central cluster.
Source: Flight International