30 Doradus nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). This image is a composite of several HST images made between 1994 and 2000, and represents a region 200 light-years across. The nebula contains an area of unusually high-mass stars, which are members of the stellar cluster R136 (visible just left of centre). The stars all formed around 2 million years ago and are, on average, 100 times the mass of the Sun.
The intense radiation emitted by these stars is compressing gas and dust outside the cluster, resulting in the formation of several stellar nurseries. A few stars - currently only a few hundred thousand years old - have already formed from these nurseries and dispersed their shrouds of gas and dust.
