Baby Stars Brewing in the Witch Head Nebula
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Baby Stars Brewing in the Witch Head Nebula

May 28, 2006
Eight hundred light-years away in the Orion constellation, a gigantic murky cloud called the "Witch Head Nebula" is teeming with dust-obscured newborn stars waiting to be uncovered.

In this image, the super sensitive infrared eyes of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope reveals 12 new baby stars in a small portion of the cloud commonly referred to as the Witch Head's "pointy chin."

Observations are currently underway to search for infant stars in the rest of the cloud.

The image is a four-color composite where blue represents 3.6 microns, green depicts 4.5 microns, yellow is 5.8 microns, and red is 8.0 microns.

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