May — The cosmic master of disguise: IC 2631

In the southern hemisphere, the Chamaeleon cloud, or IC 2631, is visible in the sky for most of the year, and in this image, captured by ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA), you can admire it in infrared light.

IC 2631 is a reflection nebula made of dust clouds that reflect the light emitted from nearby stars. The nebula is mainly illuminated by one of the youngest, most massive and brightest stars in its neighbourhood, HD 97300, visible to the centre-right of the image. The Chamaeleon Cloud is in fact the brightest nebula in the Chamaeleon Complex, a vast region of gas and dust clouds –– much larger than what this image shows –– where numerous newborn and still-forming stars live.

The original image can be downloaded in high resolution on https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2329a/