Hubble Image: Wispy Dust and Gas Paint Portrait of Starbirth

FOR RELEASE: August 23, 2006

PHOTO NO.: STScI-PRC06-41

WISPY DUST AND GAS PAINT PORTRAIT OF STARBIRTH

This active region of star formation in the Large Magellanic Cloud
(LMC),
as photographed by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, unveils wispy clouds
of hydrogen and oxygen that swirl and mix with dust on a canvas of
astronomical size. The LMC is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.

This particular region within the LMC, referred to as N 180B, contains
some of the brightest known star clusters. This image was taken with
Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 in 1998 using filters that
isolate light emitted by hydrogen and oxygen gas.

Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Acknowledgment: Y.-H. Chu (University of Illinois, Urbana - Champaign)
and
Y. Naz? (Universite de Li?ge, Belgium)

To see and read more about N 180B on the Web, visit:
http://hubblesite.org/news/2006/41
http://heritage.stsci.edu/2006/41

For more information, contact:

You-Hua Chu, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois,
(phone) 217-333-5535, (e-mail) chu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx, or

Ray Villard, Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.,
(phone) 410-338-4514, (e-mail) villard@xxxxxxxxx, or

Keith Noll, Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.,
(phone) 410-338-1828, (e-mail) noll@xxxxxxxxx


The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation
between
NASA and the European Space Agency. The Space Telescope Science
Institute is
operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in
Astronomy, Inc., Washington.

.