#SpaceScience image of the week features cool star formation.

A dark cloud when observed with optical telescopes, the #ChamaeleonI region reveals itself as an active hub of star formation in this far-infrared image from ESA’s #Herschel #space #observatory. Only around 550 light-years away in the southern constellation of Chamaeleon, it is one of the closest areas where stars are bursting into life.

Launched in 2009, Herschel observed the sky at far-infrared and submillimetre wavelengths until 2013. Sensitive to the heat from the small fraction of cold dust mixed in with the clouds of gas where stars form, it provided unprecedented views of the interstellar material that pervades our Milky Way galaxy.

Read more: http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2017/11/Star_formation_in_the_Chamaeleon

Credit: ESA/Herschel; acknowledgement: Á. Ribas#SpaceScience image of the week features cool star formation.A dark cloud when observed with optical telescopes, the #ChamaeleonI region reveals itself as an active hub of star formation in this far-infrared image from ESA’s #Herschel #space #observatory. Only around 550 light-years away in the southern constellation of Chamaeleon, it is one of the closest areas where stars are bursting into life.Launched in 2009, Herschel observed the sky at