The Fighting Dragons of Ara

About This Photograph

The "Fighting Dragons of Ara" is a colorful nebula with a colorful name. Shown here in close-up, only the dragon's "heads" are visible, locked in an all-out, tooth-to-tooth battle for celestial dominance. In reality, this star-forming region is a combination of emission and absorption nebulas. Just above the frame, a bright young star cluster provides the ultraviolet light needed to make the gasses in this region glow. Some of this gas and dust lies closer to us than the star cluster, so we see the "dark side" of the clouds superimposed on the glowing gas beyond.