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Star formation on filaments in RCW106

Stars are bursting into life all over this image from ESA’s Herschel space observatory. It depicts the giant molecular cloud RCW106, a massive billow of gas and dust almost 12,000 light-years away in the southern constellation of Norma, the Carpenter’s Square.

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The giant stars and the little fox

This infrared image from ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory shows the region known as Vulpecula OB1, a ‘stellar association’ in which a batch of truly giant ‘OB’ stars is being born 8,000 light-years away in the constellation of Vulpecula (The Little Fox). There is enough material here to build stars for millions of years to come.