Light and Dark

Brilliant blue stars peer from within Lupus 3, a stellar nursery in the constellation Orion. The stars emerged from ribbons of dark dust like those that flank the stars. Now, the young stars are so hot that they produce extreme amounts of ultraviolet radiation, which has vaporized the nearby dust and allowed the stars to shine through. The stars probably won't live long, though. Within a few million years they are likely to explode as supernovae. [ESO/E. Colmobari]