October 8, 2008--A composite image blends x-ray, infrared, and visible light data from several telescopes to portray a colorful cloud of newly forming stars in an irregular dwarf galaxy 210,000 light-years away.

Radiation emitted by massive stars erodes the dust cloud and produces shock waves that compress dust and gas into new stars within an orange-red arc (near center).

An isolated group of new pink stars (upper left) was created by wind compression from a massive supernova that exploded some 50,000 years ago.

--Brian Handwerk