Euclid’s view of stellar nursery Messier 78 – Close-up 2

This image is released as part of the Early Release Observations from ESA’s Euclid space mission. All data from these initial observations are made public on 23 May 2024– including a handful of unprecedented new views of the nearby Universe, this being one. This image is a higher resolution, close-up cutout from a larger frame featuring Messier 78, a vibrant nursery of star formation enveloped in a shroud of interstellar dust, and its surroundings. This image illustrates how newly forming stars create a 'cavity' in the surrounding molecular cloud by generating winds of charged particles. The colours relate to ionised atomic hydrogen (the main component of the cloud; blue) and the absorption and scattering of light by dust grains (red). Credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi