New stars shed scientists light

The handout picture released by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) on January 14, 2013 taken with the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile shows a dark cloud where new stars are forming along with a cluster of brilliant stars that have already emerged from their dusty stellar nursery.

This cloud is known as Lupus 3 and it lies about 600 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Scorpius (The Scorpion).

It is likely that the Sun formed in a similar star formation region more than four billion years ago and is the best image ever taken of this little-known object.