| An active stellar nursery lies hidden inside a massive dark cloud rich   in molecules and dust in the constellation of Monoceros. Although it   appears close in the sky to the more familiar Orion Nebula it is   actually almost twice as far from Earth, at a distance of about 2700   light-years. In visible light a grouping of massive hot stars creates a   beautiful collection of reflection nebulae where the bluish starlight is   scattered from parts of the dark, foggy outer layers of the molecular   cloud (From ESO.org)  |