images

Star life cycle in NGC 3603

by

Nasa/Stsci/Novapix

Reference

a-neb36-03011

Date

2006-05-14

This image made by the Hubble space telescope nicely illustrates the entire stellar life cycle of stars, starting with the Bok globules (dark clouds at the upper right) and giant gaseous pillars, followed by circumstellar disks and progressing to evolved massive stars in the young starburst cluster (center). The blue supergiant star Sher 25 with its ring and bipolar outflow (upper left of center) marks the end of the life cycle. NGC 3603 is located 20 000 light years away in Carina constellation.