In honor of Independence Day, NASA released a picture of twinkling stars that the space agency was comparing to a " explosion of celestial fireworks. "

"Like a fireworks on July 4th a glittering young starry collection looks like an air explosion," NASA said in a press release on the photo, which is actually a combination of two images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2009.

stars are surrounded by clouds of gas and interstellar dust – raw materials for the creation of new stars, NASA said.

The nebula, located 20 000 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Carina, contains a central cluster of huge hot stars, called NGC 3603, according to the US Space Agency.

"Appearing colorful and serene, this environment but," said NASA. "Ultraviolet radiation and strong stellar winds blew a huge cavity in the gas and dust enveloping the group."

Most of the group's stars were "born" at the same time but had different colors, temperatures and sizes. mass, said NASA. The group includes stars at different stages of their lives, allowing scientists to perform a detailed analysis of stellar life cycles.

"NGC 3603 also contains some of the most massive stars known," NASA said. "These huge stars live fast and die young, quickly burning their hydrogen fuel and ending their life in supernova explosions."

Clusters of stars provide scientists with important clues to help them understand the origin of massive stars.

"Astronomers also use massive clusters to study far-off star explosions that occur when galaxies collide, triggering a wave of star formation," says NASA

]. These distant and important events, "said NASA.

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