The Rosette Nebula

A flower-shaped cloud of gas 130 light-years across, 5,200 light-years away in Monoceros. The Rosette Nebula surrounds the young open cluster NGC 2244, whose fierce stellar winds have blown a cavity in the center of the cloud — the “hole” in the flower. The surrounding petals are dense ridges of gas and dust being sculpted by radiation, and deep within them, new stars are condensing. The entire structure is slowly being blown apart by the same stars it created.