Dark Flame

This newly released Hubble Space Telescope image shows vast clouds of dark dust intertwining with bright gas in the Flame Nebula, NGC 2024, in the constellation Orion. The nebula, which is about 1,400 light-years away, is giving birth to new stars. A cluster of stars, in fact, resides within the dark dust. Ultraviolet energy from one of the stars of Orion's Belt, which is close to the nebula, charges clouds of hydrogen gas, making them glow. [NASA/ESA/N. Da Rio (University of Virginia); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)]