The near-infrared vision of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has given us a new view deep inside the Tarantula Nebula - and its more than 800,000 stars and protostars within.

Also known as 30 Doradus, the Tarantula Nebula is a region of star birth that resides 170,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small, satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. The Tarantula Nebula's vigorous star birth may be fueled partly by gas stripped from the Small Magellanic Cloud. One question researchers hope to answer is whether super-massive stars always form in clusters, or whether they can be born in isolation. Because it contains the nearest observable super-cluster of stars, the nebula is a nearby laboratory for seeing close-up a firestorm of star birth that was much more common in the early universe. Hubble can resolve individual stars and many red protostars as well as aging red giants and supergiants, giving astronomers new insights into the stars' birth and evolution.

This near-infrared view reveals newly formed stars that are often embedded in clouds of dust, and only the near-infrared light can pass through these clouds.

CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER SIZE. Created using observations taken as part of the Hubble Tarantula Treasury Project (HTTP), these images were snapped using Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). The Hubble Tarantula Treasury Project (HTTP) is scanning and imaging many of the many millions of stars within the Tarantula, mapping out the locations and properties of the nebula's stellar inhabitants. These observations will help astronomers to piece together an understanding of the nebula's skeleton, viewing its starry structure. Credit: NASA, ESA, E. Sabbi (STScI)

The huge Hubble mosaic, assembled from 438 separate images, spans 600 light-years.

Because of the mosaic's exquisite detail and sheer breadth, astronomers can follow how episodes of star birth migrate across the region in space and time.

Star formation in the Tarantula Nebula started tens of millions of years ago, though it was not confined to a specific region. Instead, as enough gas accumulated, pockets of star birth burst to life erratically, like the finale of a fireworks show.

"Because of the mosaic's exquisite detail and sheer breadth, we can follow how episodes of star birth migrate across the region in space and time," said Elena Sabbi, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., and the principal investigator of the observing team.

The new infrared Hubble mosaic is revealing a multitude of pockets of star formation.

These regions will likely merge into larger clusters.

When complete, the program will produce a large catalog of stellar properties, which will allow astronomers to study a wide range of important topics related to star formation.