November – VISTA views Messier 78

This richly detailed view of the star formation region Messier 78, just 1600 light-years away in the constellation of Orion (The Hunter), was taken with the VISTA infrared survey telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. As well as the blue regions of reflected light from the hot young stars, the image also shows streams of dark dust and the red jets emerging from stars in the process of formation.