IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

Cotton candy from outer space

This broad vista of young stars and gas clouds in our neighboring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys. The star-forming region is known as N11 or the Bean Nebula.
This broad vista of young stars and gas clouds in our neighboring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys. The star-forming region is known as N11 or the Bean Nebula.J.M. Apellaniz / IAA / NASA / ESA
By Cosmic Log

You want sparkles with that? The Hubble Space Telescope serves up a delicious picture of the nebula known as N11, complete with sparkly star clusters embedded in fluffy pink clouds of gas. This exceptionally energetic star-forming region, also known as the Bean Nebula, extends over 1,000 light-years in the Large Magellanic Cloud. It's in the southern constellation Dorado, about 180,000 light-years from Earth. Three generations of star formation have created shells of gas and dust ... which are being blown away by radiation from the newborn stars. You can watch the story unfold in a Hubblecast video from the European Space Agency. If you like this image, be sure to check out this different perspective on N11, as well as this closeup of the region's Rose Nebula. Then knock yourself out clicking through scores of stunning sights in our Space Gallery.

Cosmic Log