The Pacman Nebula

Is the Pacman Nebula eating stars? No, but it is forming them. Inside the nebula, one cluster’s young, huge stars power the prevalent nebular glow.

Eye-catching shapes materialize as sculpted dusty columns. Dense globules are seen in silhouette, corroded by intense, dynamic winds from the hot cluster stars. If they survive, the dusty structures may be locations of future star formation as well. 

Named the Pacman Nebula due to its overall shape, this nebula is about 10 thousand light-years from us in the constellation Cassiopeia.

This nebula combines discharge from the nebula’s oxygen and hydrogen atoms to synthesize blue, green, and red colors.

This image was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.