NGC 3324

Oh look, another nebula picture from the European Southern Observatory. Again? Yes. I make no apologies, people. This little beauty is NGC 3324, a stellar nursery some 7,500 light years away in the southern constellation Carina. This pretty picture comprises light through visual, oxygen-III and hydrogen-alpha filters captured by the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at La Silla. Nancy Atkinson thinks it looks like Alfred Hitchcock. Image credit: ESO.

Other pretty space pictures I spotted this week: barred spiral galaxy NGC 1073, courtesy of the Hubble; and, closer to home, Saturn’s moon Dione in front of an edge-on look at the rings, courtesy of Cassini.