Previewed in the ESA Cosmic Visions talk just moments ago, this stunning image from the Herschel Space Observatory reveals the formation of previously unseen large stars in the Rosette Nebula. The bright patches indicate dusty cocoons concealing massive protostars, each one up to ten times the mass of our own Sun. Each colour represents a different temperature of dust, from -263 degrees Celsius in the red emission to -233 degrees in the blue.
Herschel is showing astronomers young, massive protostars for the first time. These rare behemoths are essential to aid our understanding of star formation in the early Universe.
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