Episodes of star formation are revealed as the galaxy continues to form clusters of new stars from its interstellar gas and dust.
The Hubble image reveals a sequence of steps in the formation and evolution of stars and star clusters, evident in the glowing gas surrounding bright stellar clusters.
The young clusters of new stars appear within bright clumps of glowing gas.
Each cloud glows because of the strong ultraviolet light emitted from the embedded young stars, which have formed within them due to the gravitational collapse of the gas.
The main object near the center of the galaxy is a cluster of hundreds of massive blue stars, each more than 10,000 times brighter than our Sun.
A vast heart-shaped bubble, inflated by the combined stellar winds and radiation pressure, surrounds the cluster. The bubble will increase in size as the most massive stars in the centre reach the ends of their lives and explode as supernovae.
Picture: REUTERS / NASA / ESA
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