In the Flame Nebula, intense radiation from a cluster of massive stars is carving out a cavity in the surrounding dust. At the center of this nebula lies a massive star, around 20 times more massive than the Sun. Though deeply embedded in dust and mostly hidden from view, this star emits bright ultraviolet light that energizes the surrounding gas and dust, causing it to glow in infrared wavelengths.

This beautiful portrait of the nebula was captured by a Planewave CDK24 telescope at El Sauce Observatory in Chile. It combines narrowband data that isolates light from sulfur, hydrogen, and oxygen wavelengths to create this false-color image.

The raw data was curated by a remote telescope service and then combined, calibrated, and processed by Richard Leighton to produce the final image.