RCW38 is an open cluster of stars which is located about 5,000 light years away toward the constellation of Vela. Open star clusters are groups of stars which formed from the same huge cloud of gas and dust. They are usually made up of groups of tens to hundreds of younger stars. The stars in RCW38 are difficult to see with an optical telescope because they are still embedded in gas and dust which block visible light. Infrared light, however, can travel through this thick dust. Infrared telescopes can peer through the dust in young star clusters and give us more information about these new stars and their environments. The stars in an open cluster will gradually move apart from each other with time. It is estimated that there are about 20,000 open clusters within our galaxy.
For this false-color Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) composite, the 8.28 µm band was mapped to the blue channel, the 12.13 µm band was mapped to the green channel, and the 21.3 µm band was mapped to the red channel. This image covers about 3.7 x 3.7 degrees in the sky.
Credit: MSX/IPAC/NASA