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Wispy Dust and Gas Paint Portrait of Starbirth


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This active region of star formation in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), as photographed by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, unveils wispy clouds of hydrogen and oxygen that swirl and mix with dust on a canvas of astronomical size. The LMC is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.

This particular region within the LMC, referred to as N 180B, contains some of the brightest known star clusters. This image was taken with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 in 1998 using filters that isolate light emitted by hydrogen and oxygen gas.

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      View/Download all image products at all resolutions for this article from the Space Telescope Science Institute.
      View/Download the research results from Nature.
      Media Contacts
      Laura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov, Rob Gutro – rob.gutro@nasa.gov
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      Abigail Major – amajor@stsci.edu, Christine Pulliam – cpulliam@stsci.edu
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