Image 7-21
Perseus Nebula

New stars are being formed near the eastern rim of the cosmic cloud Perseus, in this infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The newborn stars are approximately three million years old and are shown as reddish-pink dots to the right of the image. The pinkish color indicates that these infant stars are still shrouded by the cosmic dust and gas that collapsed to form them. These stars are part of the IC348 star cluster, which consists of over 300 known member stars. The Perseus Nebula can be seen as the large green cloud at the center of the image.