When have old dusty clouds ever looked so beautiful? These beautiful clouds of the Carina Nebula, are where stars are born.
The equivalent of 25, 000 suns can be found here, while Carina's total mass of gas and dust clouds is about 140, 000 suns.
In an area of violent star formation like this, scientists are able to study the way these young stars and their parent clouds interact.
As with all stunning space photos, these are a combination of observartions. The APEX observations, made with the LABOCA camera have orange tones are combined with a visible light image from the Curtis Schmidt telescope at the Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory.
This video below shows the constellation of Carina (The Keel), then zooms in to the Carina Nebula region.