Cosmic Gems in Circinus West

Some of the interesting features found in the celestial shadow known as the Circinus West molecular cloud. This image was taken with the Department of Energy-fabricated 570-megapixel Dark Energy Camera (DECam) — one of the most powerful digital cameras in the world. Within this stellar nursery's opaque boundaries, infant stars ignite from cold, dense gas and dust, while outflows hurtle leftover material into space.

DECam is mounted on the U.S. National Science Foundation Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, a Program of NSF NOIRLab.