The Omega Nebula

Five thousand five hundred light-years away in Sagittarius, a cloud of gas and dust roughly 15 light-years across is collapsing under its own gravity, forming new stars. The Omega Nebula (M17) is one of the brightest and most massive star-forming regions in the Milky Way — bright enough to see with binoculars, though most of its mass is hidden behind dark dust. The bright central bar and the sweeping curves of ionized gas are sculpted by radiation from young, hot stars embedded deep within the cloud.