 This is an image of the center of the Omega Nebula, sometimes referred to as the Swan Nebula, a hotbed of newly born stars wrapped in colorful blankets of glowing gas and cradled in an enormous cold dark hydrogen cloud 15 light years in diameter. The region of the nebula shown in the photograph is about 3,500 times wider than our solar system. The powerful radiation from its stars evaporate and erode the dense clouds of cold gas within which the stars formed. The blistering walls of the hollow cloud shine primarily in the blue, green and red light emitted by excited atoms of hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and sulfur. Particularly striking is the rose-like feature seen to the right of center, which close in the red light emitted by hydrogen and sulfur.