SIMBA image of the infrared source IRAS 17175-3544

This intensity-coded, false-colour SIMBA image is centered on the infrared source IRAS 17175-3544 and covers the well-known high-mass star formation complex NGC 6334, at a distance of 5500 light-years. The southern bright source is an ultra-compact region of ionized hydrogen ("HII region") created by a star or several stars already formed. The northern bright source has not yet developed an HII region and may be a star or a cluster of stars that are presently forming. A remarkable, narrow, linear dust filament extends over the image; it was known to exist before, but the SIMBA image now shows it to a much larger extent and much more clearly. This and the following images cover an area of about 15 arcmin x 6 arcmin on the sky and have a pixel size of 8 arcsec.