WISE Has SoulRadiation from a cluster of stars has carved a hollow in the middle of the Soul Nebula, seen in a new mosaic picture from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) telescope, released April 5, 2010.

The star cluster formed inside the 150-light-year-wide cloud of gas and dust. Even as stellar winds push open the cavity, they compress material near the center of the hollow, spurring new stars to form.
Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA

Space Photos This Week: Soul Nebula, Aurora, More

Stars hollow out a dusty "soul," the space station meets an aurora, a two-faced nebula shines, and more in the week's best space pictures.

April 8, 2010