Stars emerge from darkness in nearby stellar nursery
Scientists believe most new suns form in modest star formation regions, which makes the dark cloud Lupus 3 a fascinating target.
An evocative new image from the European Southern Observatory shows a dark cloud where new stars are forming, along with a cluster of brilliant stars that have already emerged from their dusty stellar nursery. The new picture of the cloud known as Lupus 3 was taken with the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile and is the best image ever taken in visible light of this little-known object.