A star is born...

Thousands of new stars form in a haze of gas and dust known as the Tarantula Nebula. Thanks to the Paranal observatory in Chile, astronomers have taken the sharpest picture ever of the nebula. Tarantula is 600 light years wide and the brightest star formation region seen from Earth. High- energy radiation from the new-born stars forces hydrogen atoms in the gases to give off electrons, giving the gas a reddish glow. The light from the nebula shows the conditions required for a star to form.