Cluster and Starforming Region Westerlund 2
From NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the
Day
Located 20,000
light-years away in the constellation Carina, the young cluster and star-forming
region Westerlund
2 fills this cosmic scene.
Captured with Hubble's
cameras in near-infrared and visible light, the stunning image is a celebration of the 25th anniversary of
the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope on April 24, 1990.
The cluster's dense
concentration of luminous, massive stars is about 10
light-years across. Strong winds and radiation from those massive young
stars have sculpted and shaped the region's gas and dust, into star-forming
pillars that point back to the central cluster.
Red dots surrounding the
bright stars are the cluster's faint newborn stars, still within their natal
gas and dust cocoons. But brighter blue stars scattered around are likely not
in the Westerlund 2 cluster and
instead lie in the foreground of the Hubble
anniversary field of view.
