IRAS 20193+3448 (2014)

You might say that this is a strangely shaped cloud. I think if you invert your thinking for a moment and consider that this is a hole in an otherwise invisible dust cloud, that might be more correct. To the left of this hole is an inferred light source shining out; a baby star, perhaps. You can’t see it here but it’s very bright in longer wavelengths. F814W just doesn’t cut it. This is yet another dataset from proposal 10536.

Edit: An explanation I had not considered is a runaway star plowing through the cloud. This is explained competently by people who spend their lives studying this stuff here: www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2009-002

Red: HST_10536_39_ACS_HRC_F814W_sci
Green: Pseudo
Blue: HST_10536_39_ACS_HRC_F606W_sci

North is NOT up. It is 20.4° counter-clockwise from up.

Copyright information:
Hubble data is public domain, but I put a lot of work into combining it into beautiful color images. The minimal credit line should read: NASA / ESA / J. Schmidt

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.