ESO’s VLT reveals the Carina Nebula's hidden secrets

This broad image of the Carina Nebula, a region of massive star formation in the southern skies, was taken in infrared light using the HAWK-I camera on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. Many previously hidden features, scattered across a spectacular celestial landscape of gas, dust and young stars, have emerged.

Image Credit:ESO/T. Preibisch
Explanation from: http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1208a/

The Milky Way Galaxy

Tre Cime di Lavaredo, South Tyrol, Italy

November, 2013

Image Credit & Copyright: Max Rive

Pillar at Sunset

Reddened light from the setting Sun illuminates the cloud banks hugging this snowy, rugged terrain. Inspiring a moment of quiet contemplation, the sunset scene included a remarkable pillar of light that seemed to connect the clouds in the sky with the mountains below. Known as a Sun pillar, the luminous column was produced by sunlight reflecting from flat, six-sided ice crystals formed high in the cold atmosphere and fluttering toward the ground. In March 2010, astronomers watched this Sun pillar slowly fade, as the twilight deepened and clearing, dark skies came to Mt. Jelm and the Wyoming Infrared Observatory.

Image Credit & Copyright: David Alquist

Explanation from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100306.html