 The spectacular wide field image shows the area around the star R Corona Australis. A huge dust cloud about eight light years long dominates the center of the image. At its tip in the upper right is a group of lovely reflection nebula. It is the smaller yellowish nebula that surrounds the young variable star R Corona Australis. Here's a close-up image that shows the dramatic effects of very young stars on the dust and gas from which they were born. The baby stars themselves are invisible in this picture, being hidden behind the dust clouds at the upper left. But the material they are ejecting is crashing into the surroundings at speeds that can reach 800,000 kilometers per hour. That's a half a million miles per hour. These shock waves cause the gas to shine and create the strangely colored glowing arcs and blobs known as erbic, horo, or HH objects.