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March 24, 2023

Dark Energy Camera captures young stars inside NGC 6357

Billowing clouds of dust and gas surround bright, young stars inside NGC 6357, also known as the Lobster Nebula, some 8000 light-years away, in the direction of the Scorpius constellation. The image was captured by the Dark Energy Camera on the VĂ­ctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory.

[NOIRLab is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation.]

Learn more in the NOIRLab news story Dark Energy Camera Captures Bright, Young Stars Blazing Inside Glowing Nebula. (Date of image: Sept. 12, 2022; date posted to NSF Multimedia Gallery: March 24, 2023)

Credit: CTIO/NOIRLab/DOE/NSF/AURA T.A. R (Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International)

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