Exceptional Deep Space photograph: The snake and its stars in formation

NASA. LARGE FORMAT. This exceptional Deep Space photograph reveals what astonomists call a "snake" visible in the upper left of the image and a stormy cosmic environment surrounding it. This sinuous object is in fact the core of a thick cloud of soot large enough to engulf dozens of solar systems. In fact, astronomers claim that the "belly of the snake" could be home to beastly stars in the process of forming. The galactic caterpillar to the right of the snake is another thick cloudy core, in which other massive gestating stars could be hiding. The colored regions below the two cloud cores are less dense clouds, in which the dust has been heated by starlight and glows in the infrared. The yellow and orange dots in the image are developing monster stars; the red star on the snake's "belly" is 20 to 50 times more massive than our Sun. The blue dots are foreground stars. The red ball at bottom left is a "supernova remnant", i.e. the remains of a massive star that died in a fiery explosion. 2006.
Vintage chromogenic print. Numbering in the margin on the front. 40.6 X 40.6CM with margins.