Spectacular Stellar Nursery IC 2944 PopWallet+ space Three huge intersecting dark lanes

Three huge intersecting dark lanes of interstellar dust make the Trifid Nebula one of the most recognizable and striking star birth regions in the night sky

The crew of the International Space Station snapped this image of a full Moon as the orbiting complex flew 270 miles above the South Pacific Ocean off the coast of South America

The hottest members of the cluster produce enough ultraviolet radiation and strong winds to convert the cloud into ions and excavate it

and dense clouds of gas are on the verge of collapsing to form yet more stars

Levay and R

Spectacular Stellar Nursery IC 2944 PopWallet+ space Three huge intersecting dark lanesThis intriguing new view of a spectacular stellar nursery IC 2944 is being released to celebrate a milestone: 15 years of ESOs Very Large Telescope. This image also shows a group of thick clouds of dust known as the Thackeray globules silhouetted against the pale pink glowing gas of the nebula. These globules are under fierce bombardment from the ultraviolet radiation from nearby hot young stars. They are both being eroded away and also fragmenting,