NGC 2080, also known as "The Ghost Head Nebula," sits in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) south of the 30 Doradus nebula. The LMC is a small companion galaxy of the Milky Way's, lying around 168,000 light-years away. The nebula is emitting light of various colours. This is caused by the scattering of light by different elements which have been ionised by intense radiation from nearby young stars; green indicates the presence of oxygen, and red, hydrogen. Nebulae such as this are regions of active star formation. The image above represents an area 55 light-years across. The two bright white stars in the white portion of the nebula are less than 10,000 years old. Along with other new nearby stars, their radiation has cleared a cavity in the nebula.
