forming part of the Orion molecular cloud complex. It's thick with dust and gas – so thick that it's as dark as shadows in optical light. In many photos, the cloud appears as a hole in the ...

Previously, Hubble identified possible candidates in a region of the Flame Nebula called the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex.

The nursery -- known formally as the Orion A molecular cloud -- is actually the closest known "star factory" to Earth at 1,350 light-years away, according to the European Southern Observatory (ESO).

On winter evenings, Orion is one of the easiest star patterns ... the wave of new stars passing deeper into the great molecular cloud, its creative and destructive energies far from spent.