This glowing cloud of gas and dust is often called the Rosette Nebula, because in visible light it resembles a delicate flower. But captured with a filter sensitive to emissions from hydrogen and oxygen ions, it definitely looks more like a skull.
The nebula is powered by an open cluster of massive stars at the center of the skull’s left eye. Many of these hot, bright stars are only about two million years old, yet will soon run out of fuel and explode as supernovae, their shock waves blasting away what remains of the nebula.
Amid the fibrous dark clouds of dense gas and dust above the eye are Bok globules – clumps of cold gas in which protostars are gravitationally collapsing to create new stars and star clusters. These regions are opaque at visible wavelengths, so researchers must use radio telescopes to probe their composition and structure. Bok globules are among the coldest objects in the universe and an area of intense research, as astronomers try to pull back the curtain of obscuring dust to reveal the hidden structure
