This festively colorful nebula, called NGC 604, is one of thelargest known seething cauldrons of star birth in a nearbygalaxy. NGC 604 is similar to familiar star-birth regions inour Milky Way galaxy, such as the Orion Nebula, but it is vastlylarger in extent and contains many more recently formed stars.

This monstrous star-birth region contains more than 200 brilliantblue stars within a cloud of glowing gases some 1,300 light-yearsacross, nearly 100 times the size of the Orion Nebula. By contrast,the Orion Nebula contains just four bright central stars. Thebright stars in NGC 604 are extremely young by astronomicalstandards, having formed a mere 3 million years ago.

Credit: NASA/ESA and The Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI)