Star CradleA new picture from the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope is the most detailed infrared view yet of the Carina Nebula. This bustling stellar nursery sits about 7,500 light-years from Earth and is home to several of the brightest and most massive stars known.Radiation from the hot, young stars inside causes the large nebula to glow brightly in visible light. But the new infrared view can also pierce the space cloud's veil of dust to see hundreds of thousands of fainter stars that were previously invisible.
Image courtesy ESO

Space Pictures This Week: Sun Storm, Mars Lander, More

A star nursery shines, a sun storm erupts, a Mars orbiter spies its cousin, and more in the week's best space pictures.

February 11, 2012