The Lupus 3 Wall Art including Frame Canvas Credit: ESO/Igor Chekalin

Credit: ESO/Igor Chekalin

the neighbouring Magellanic Clouds

An array of distant galaxies are also visible throughout the frame

several times the diameter of the full Moon

shows the Lambda Centauri nebula

The Lupus 3 Wall Art including Frame Canvas Credit: ESO/Igor ChekalinThis evocative image shows a dark cloud where new stars are forming along with a cluster of brilliant stars that have already emerged from their dusty stellar nursery. This cloud is known as Lupus 3 and it lies about 600 light years from Earth in the constellation of Scorpius (The Scorpion). It is likely that the Sun formed in a similar star formation region more than four billion years ago. This picture was taken with the MPG ESO 2. 2 metre telescope