This image, captured by NASA/ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope, is full of color and activity. It has a relatively nearby star-forming region known as IRAS 16562-3959 and is located within the Milky Way, in the constellation Scorpio, about 5,900 light-years from Earth.

Observations taken from Hubble’s Wide Angle Camera 3 create this image. The detailed color tone is the result of four separate filters. These thin strips of highly specialized material can slide in front of the device’s light sensors, allowing a very specific wavelength of light to pass through them during each observation. This is useful because specific wavelengths of light can tell us about the composition, temperature, and density of a region.

At the center of the IRAS image is 16562-3959, a massive star that is probably about 30 times the mass of our Sun and is still in the process of forming. Shadow clouds appear dark because so much light-blocking dust blocks the near-infrared light waves observed by Hubble.

However, near-infrared light leaks mainly from two sides (upper left and lower right), where the powerful jet from the massive protostar clears the dust. Multiwavelength images like this incredible Hubble scene help us better understand how the largest and brightest stars in our galaxy are formed.